US air travel rebounds after extensive nationwide shutdown
A communications failure linked to a contractor's router installation caused a nationwide ground stop, prompting cancellations and delays before operations began to normalize.
Airlines cancelled about 4,500 flights and delayed a similar number on Saturday as the United States worked to recover from the longest nationwide flight shutdown since the September 11, 2001 attacks. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced that the system was stable and expected airline operations to largely return to normal by late Sunday.
The FAA issued a nationwide ground stop on Friday that halted nearly all departing flights for almost five hours after a massive communications failure forced the cancellation of nearly 10,000 flights and delayed more than 7,000 others, marking one of the worst travel days in recent U.S. history.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the disruption was triggered by L3Harris, an FAA contractor, installing at least one new router at a remote facility.
“We’re working to determine whether we had incompetence, meaning was it user error or installer error from L3Harris, or did they install a faulty router? We haven’t determined what the fault was,” Duffy said at a press conference.
He added that the issue caused a data overload at other communications centres, with over 1,000 connection attempts every four to five seconds, leading to problems with aircraft communications and radar. The problem affected communications at 17 of the 22 en-route centres that manage aircraft during cruise. FAA head Bryan Bedford said no facilities went completely dark and that the ground stop was ordered as a precaution.
Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and American Airlines each cancelled roughly 20 percent of their flights on Saturday, while JetBlue cancelled about 40 percent. Airlines issued travel waivers allowing passengers to rebook without cost.
The FAA lifted the ground stop on Friday evening, but tens of thousands of passengers remained stranded as airlines worked to reposition crews and equipment. The outage also stranded several college football teams scheduled to play Saturday.
Duffy called for $50 billion in funding to upgrade air traffic control systems, up from an earlier request of $30 billion, describing the situation as an emergency. The incident highlights ongoing strain on the U.S. air traffic control system, which faces aging technology, equipment and communications challenges and a shortage of controllers.
Because the FAA is responsible for passenger delays, airlines are not required to provide compensation.