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Flight cancellations and delays are set to grow as airline passengers across the United States spent the weekend grappling with those issues at major airports nationwide after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) mandated a 4% reduction in air traffic in response to the ongoing federal government shutdown.

If the shutdown continues, the FAA has instructed airlines to cut 6% of flights on Tuesday – and to do the same to 10% by 14 November. The transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, has warned that flight reductions could reach 20% if the shutdown persists, and on Sunday he predicted a “substantial” number of people in the US would be unable to celebrate the upcoming holidays with their families if the shutdown wasn’t resolved.

“You’re going to see air travel be reduced to a trickle,” Duffy said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union. “We have a number of people who want to get home for the holidays. They want to see their family … Listen, many of them are not going to be able to get on an airplane because there are not going to be that many flights that fly if this thing doesn’t open back up.”

The FAA’s requirement for airlines to cut 4% of daily flights at 40 “high traffic” US airports began Friday and represented an attempt to ease the mounting pressure on air traffic controllers. Like other federal employees, those controllers have not been paid for weeks amid the government shutdown, which has become the longest in history and reached its 40th day.

“We are seeing signs of stress in the system, so we are proactively reducing the number of flights to make sure the American people continue to fly safely,” the FAA administrator, Bryan Bedford, said earlier this week. He also said that between 20% to 40% of controllers had not been showing up for work over the last several days.

The first round of flight reductions led to around 800 cancellations on Friday and 1,460 on Saturday. As of 9am ET Sunday, more than 1,000 flights across the US had been cancelled for the day, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware.

On Sunday, Duffy told CNN that the US is “short air traffic controllers” and that he was “trying to get more air traffic controllers into the towers and be certified, but I am about a 1,000 to 2,000 controllers short”.

Airlines were offering full refunds to customers for canceled flights.

The National Air Traffic Controllers Association has warned that the shutdown was worsening the staffing shortages and said that many controllers “are working 10-hour days and six-day workweeks due to the ongoing staffing shortage, all without pay.

“This situation creates substantial distractions for individuals who are already engaged in extremely stressful work,” they said. “The financial and mental strain increases risks within the National Airspace System, making it less safe with each passing day of the shutdown.”

On Saturday, the union said it had delivered 1,600 handwritten letters from members to Congress calling for the shutdown to end.

As the shutdown drags on, Democratic and Republican lawmakers continued to blame each other for the impasse – and for the flight disruptions.

On Friday, the White House blamed Democrats for the cancellations and delays, saying they “are inflicting their man-made catastrophe on Americans just trying to make life-saving medical trips or get home for Thanksgiving”.

On Saturday, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, accused the Republicans of “playing games” and said that “instead of negotiating with Democrats, Republicans would rather let air-traffic controllers go unpaid, they’d rather ground flights, and they’d rather punish travelers.”

For passengers, uncertainty remained about which flights would be canceled, and analysts warned that the disruption would likely intensify and spread beyond air travel if cancellations keep growing and reach into Thanksgiving week.

The moderator of NBC’s Meet the Press, Kristen Welker, asked Democratic US House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, if the shutdown would end before Thanksgiving. “I hope so,” Jeffries said.

Asked the same question by Welker, Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma said “it absolutely needs to – it needs to open today if we can get it open”.

Rental car companies reported a sharp increase in one-way reservations Friday, and some people simply canceled flights altogether.

Some analysts have pointed out that there was the potential for higher prices in stores, as nearly half of US air freight is shipped in the bellies of passenger aircraft. There is also the possibility of higher shipping costs that get passed on to consumers, and further losses, from tourism to manufacturing, that will ripple through the economy if the slowdown continues.

SCSK (TSE:9719) has recently seen its stock price gain momentum over the past month, climbing nearly 29%. That kind of movement often gets investors wondering what is driving the action and how the company stacks up after such a run.

See our latest analysis for SCSK.

SCSK’s share price has soared in recent weeks, building on strong momentum and capturing investors’ attention. With a 29% climb over the past month and a stellar 92% total shareholder return for the year, sentiment is upbeat and signals of growth potential are hard to miss, even as the broader market has been more subdued.

If you’re curious where else you might find this kind of momentum, it’s a great time to broaden your horizons and discover fast growing stocks with high insider ownership

But with the stock now trading well above analyst targets and following a strong rally, the big question remains: Is there still value left for new buyers, or has the market already priced in SCSK’s future growth?

SCSK is currently trading at a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 28.9x, which makes it look expensive compared to both industry peers and its estimated fair valuation. The last close price stood at ¥5,677, while industry and fair P/E benchmarks are notably lower.

The P/E ratio measures how much investors are willing to pay today for each yen of earnings generated by the company. For technology and IT services firms in Japan, the P/E is often used to gauge future profit expectations, reward for growth, and sector sentiment.

A P/E of 28.9x is sharply higher than the JP IT industry average of 17.1x. This suggests that the market is pricing in robust growth or superior business quality. However, SCSK also trades above its peer average of 25.9x and its own fair P/E of 28x. This means expectations might have run a little hot. If the market regains balance, SCSK’s valuation could shift toward this fair level.

Explore the SWS fair ratio for SCSK

Result: Price-to-Earnings of 28.9x (OVERVALUED)

However, slowing revenue and profit growth, combined with the stock’s premium valuation, could limit further upside if market expectations shift.

Find out about the key risks to this SCSK narrative.

Looking at SCSK from another angle, our DCF model estimates its fair value at ¥3,820.56. This is well below the current market price of ¥5,677. This approach suggests the stock may be overvalued, challenging the idea that high growth fully justifies today’s valuation. Could this signal caution for new investors?

Look into how the SWS DCF model arrives at its fair value.

Simply Wall St performs a discounted cash flow (DCF) on every stock in the world every day (check out SCSK for example). We show the entire calculation in full. You can track the result in your watchlist or portfolio and be alerted when this changes, or use our stock screener to discover 876 undervalued stocks based on their cash flows. If you save a screener we even alert you when new companies match – so you never miss a potential opportunity.

Don’t just take these numbers at face value. If you have your own angle or want to dig deeper, you can craft your perspective in just a few minutes with Do it your way.

A great starting point for your SCSK research is our analysis highlighting 2 key rewards and 2 important warning signs that could impact your investment decision.

Smart investors are always on the lookout for opportunities others might overlook. You could be missing the next big winner if you don’t take action now.

This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

Companies discussed in this article include 9719.T.

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