U.S. airlines scrambled on Thursday to rejig schedules and field calls from anxious customers after the Trump administration ordered flight reductions at major airports due to a shortage of air traffic controllers during the longest government shutdown in history.

The cuts, set to begin on Friday, were expected to hit hundreds of thousands of travelers with little notice. Aviation analytics firm Cirium estimated the reductions would cancel up to 1,800 flights and cut 268,000 airline seats a day in the U.S. International flights are not affected.

The timing, during a period of low travel demand, was making it easier for carriers to rebook passengers by cutting flight frequencies on some routes and using bigger planes. Analysts said the impact on airline earnings was likely to be mode

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