Kalshi shelves planned markets on flight cancellations

Kalshi has put on hold a plan to offer prediction-market contracts tied to flight cancellations, Fortune reported. The pause matters because the proposal would have pushed regulated event trading into air travel disruptions, a category that quickly drew worries about possible abuse.

The company had planned to start listing the contracts on Wednesday, according to a regulatory filing cited by Fortune. A Kalshi spokesperson told Fortune on Thursday that the platform decided not to proceed for now.

The proposed contracts would have covered cancellations across an airport, rather than bets on a specific flight, according to Fortune. The rules also barred certain insiders from trading, including TSA agents, airport officials and union officials.

Those limits did not stop criticism online. Fortune reported that social media users warned that airport workers might try to engineer cancellations for a payout, or that criminals could make false threats to disrupt air travel.

FlightAware, an airline-tracking service, also said Kalshi could not rely on its data to settle the contracts, according to Fortune. The Kalshi spokesperson disputed that position, telling Fortune the information is public and that FlightAware’s claim was unfounded.

Kalshi also argued the contracts could have practical uses beyond speculation. The company spokesperson told Fortune that conference organizers and other businesses exposed to flight disruptions could use such contracts as a hedge.

Prediction markets face wider scrutiny

The dispute adds to a broader fight over prediction markets. Fortune reported that supporters see them as useful tools for gathering market signals, while critics say they can encourage reckless gambling or attempts to manipulate outcomes.

Kalshi faced another controversy the same day, according to Fortune. News broke Thursday that Donald Trump’s longtime teleprompter operator had illegally used Kalshi to wager on words the president would use in a speech.

Kalshi’s lawyer said in a post on X that the company detected the suspicious trades and reported them to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Fortune reported. The flight-cancellation proposal is now paused, leaving unresolved whether Kalshi or another platform will try again to create markets linked to airline disruptions.

This story draws on original reporting from Fortune.