Key takeaways:
- The FAA lifted the nationwide ground stop at 8:15 p.m. Eastern time Friday, more than four hours after departing flights were halted, Al Jazeera reported.
- Cirium said about 11,000 flights carrying more than 1.5 million passengers were scheduled to depart U.S. airports after 4 p.m.
- Delta said repositioning aircraft and crews would take time, while Air Canada warned of disruption Saturday.
The Federal Aviation Administration lifted a nationwide ground stop Friday evening after more than four hours, but thousands of canceled and delayed flights left passengers facing disruption into Saturday.
The FAA cited communications problems at regional air traffic control centers when it halted departing flights Friday afternoon, according to The Guardian. Al Jazeera separately reported that a telecommunications outage affected the country’s 22 regional centers. The agency lifted the stop at 8:15 p.m. Eastern time, Al Jazeera reported.
The scale of the disruption was substantial. Cirium, an aviation analytics firm, said about 11,000 flights carrying more than 1.5 million passengers were scheduled to depart U.S. airports after 4 p.m. At least 827 flights had been diverted by 7:05 p.m., Al Jazeera reported, citing Cirium.
Flight trackers reported different tallies. Flightradar24 counted more than 4,700 cancellations and 10,000 delays Friday, with 700 flights already canceled for Saturday, according to Al Jazeera. The Guardian cited FlightAware figures of 1,479 cancellations and 10,343 delays on flights within, into or out of the United States. More than 1,000 aircraft were bound for the country when the stop was announced, The Guardian reported, citing Flightradar24.
At New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, Steve Honberger said his plane to Portland, Oregon, sat at the gate for an hour and 40 minutes before he, his wife and daughter got off to rebook. “They didn’t seem to know what’s happening, and they wanted to hold off as long as possible,” he told The Guardian.
At Los Angeles International Airport, Nicholas Erdodi, traveling from New Zealand to a conference in Chicago, told Al Jazeera he spent six hours at the airport after being forced off his plane. He had been rebooked but did not know whether that flight would depart. “The lack of information is what bothers me,” he said.
Confusion continued after the stop ended. Larson Welsh, traveling from Paris to Las Vegas, told The Guardian that after his flight was canceled, an airport kiosk showed him departing at 3 a.m., while staff at a desk had no information. Some international passengers at JFK began boarding later Friday, drawing applause at the gates, The Guardian reported.
Airlines warned that recovery would take time. Delta said it was resuming operations and offering flexible rebooking, but aircraft and crews needed repositioning. United said it was resuming some Friday night flights; JetBlue planned to resume Saturday morning. Air Canada warned of disruption Saturday, while Aeromexico was working to restart operations, according to Al Jazeera.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said it would “take us some time” to restore capacity and that “we’re going to have some makeup to do.” He expected operations to return to normal before the Thanksgiving travel rush, Al Jazeera reported.
The stoppage also stranded NBA, NHL and college teams traveling for weekend games. The Texas Longhorns had boarded their plane before it was grounded, while the San Jose Sharks were waiting to fly to Utah, Al Jazeera reported. Referees’ travel was also in doubt, according to The Guardian.
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