FAA Nationwide Ground Stop Lifted After Airspace Shutdown Disrupts Thousands of Flights

Flights resume after halt

The FAA called off the order hours after it stopped departures from US airports. Earlier, the agency had directed departing traffic to stay grounded until further notice, citing a temporary telecommunications outage and safety concerns.

FlightAware reported more than 4,500 cancellations on Friday and about 700 for Saturday. More than 10,000 flights within, into or out of the United States were delayed, and Cirium said roughly 11,000 departures were scheduled after 4 p.m. local time Friday, with further cancellations expected.

Officials cite older systems

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy described the failure as a problem with a legacy network, pointing to aging switches, routers and copper lines. He said the communications issue affected all Air Route Traffic Control Centers.

International travel affected

Eurocontrol said departures to US airports from its 42 member states were suspended at the FAA’s request while technical issues were addressed. In Canada, NAV Canada introduced traffic-management measures at airports in Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver.

NAV Canada said its own systems were operating normally and advised travelers to expect delays and check with their airlines. Toronto Pearson Airport reported that flights between Toronto and the United States were affected.

Modernization request and history

This was the first nationwide ground stop since a system outage in January 2023. Before that, the last nationwide halt followed the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.