US Flight Disruption: FAA Lifts Nationwide Ground Stop After Air Traffic Control Outage

WASHINGTON: The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) lifted a nationwide ground stop on Friday after a communications failure at air traffic control centres caused widespread disruption at US airports, triggering the longest nationwide aviation shutdown since the September 11, 2001, attacks.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said US airspace reopened at 8:15 p.m. Eastern Time (0115 GMT), but warned that departures would resume gradually and airlines would need time to restore normal operations.

“It’s going to be slow,” Duffy told reporters at the White House.

According to FlightRadar24, more than 6,600 flights were cancelled and 8,600 delayed, while another 1,500 cancellations had already been recorded for Sunday. Aviation analysts warned that the four-hour nationwide grounding could disrupt airline schedules for several days.

Duffy said tens of thousands of passengers had been stranded at airports across the country. He added that he and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin had met President Donald Trump in the Oval Office to discuss the outage.

The incident has highlighted longstanding weaknesses in the US air traffic control system, which faces challenges from ageing technology, equipment and communications problems, as well as a shortage of several thousand air traffic controllers.

Duffy said the disruption began at 3:36 p.m., when air traffic control centres experienced instability in radar and communications systems.

He explained that network switches and routers became overloaded with data, producing inconsistent information. Authorities subsequently shut down the affected system as a precaution.

Duffy said radar and communications had not been completely lost at any point and that controllers had safely landed thousands of aircraft during the disruption.

He added that the immediate technical problem had been resolved and flying was safe, but warned that a broader modernisation of the ageing air traffic control infrastructure was necessary to prevent similar incidents.

$50 billion modernisation plan

Duffy blamed Congress for failing to provide sufficient funding for a replacement system and called for $50 billion to modernise the country’s air traffic control infrastructure.

Earlier on Friday, before the outage, the White House and Department of Transportation had urged Congress to approve $30.1 billion for improvements to airports and air traffic control facilities.

“What we have is an incredibly old air traffic control system,” Duffy said, urging lawmakers to provide the funding needed for upgrades.

Mullin said investigators had found no evidence so far that the outage resulted from a cyberattack or a rogue artificial intelligence system, although neither possibility had been ruled out.

“It appears this was mechanically driven, however, we’re still looking,” he said.

The National Security Agency was working with the Department of Homeland Security on the investigation, according to Mullin.

The outage appeared to involve a telecommunications network overseen by L3Harris Technologies, according to two airline officials. The network handles critical radio frequencies used by air traffic controllers to communicate with pilots.

L3Harris did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Passengers face continuing disruption

Although the nationwide ground stop was lifted, the disruption for passengers continued. Airports from Boston and New York to Seattle and Los Angeles experienced crowded departure halls, long queues at airline counters and mounting cancellations as aircraft remained parked at gates.

Thousands of travellers faced the prospect of spending the night at airports while waiting for alternative flights.

Edward Kargbo, 50, from West Chester, Pennsylvania, had been scheduled to board a 9 p.m. Ethiopian Airlines flight to Lomé, Togo. Instead, he planned to remain at the airport overnight before taking a rescheduled flight at 6 a.m. on Saturday.

“I’m stranded,” he said.

Louise Maher, 47, was also affected at Newark airport after her British Airways flight to London was caught up in the disruption.

US airlines will not be required to compensate stranded passengers because the cancellations and delays resulted from FAA system failures rather than circumstances under the airlines’ control.

The only other nationwide ground stop since the September 11 attacks occurred in January 2023, when the FAA halted domestic departures for approximately 90 minutes following a separate system disruption.

The latest outage also affected airline shares as investors assessed the financial consequences of widespread cancellations and delays.

Shares of American Airlines, United Airlines and Delta Air Lines fell between 1% and 2% in after-hours trading, while JetBlue Airways declined approximately 3%.

American Airlines said it was prioritising flights to smaller cities outside its major hubs and international destinations to reposition aircraft and crews and support a faster recovery.

The FAA’s decision to reopen US airspace marked an important step towards restoring operations, but the scale of cancellations, aircraft repositioning and crew scheduling challenges meant passengers could continue experiencing disruptions for days.