Air Traffic: FAA Lifts Nationwide Ground Stop After Systems Fail

The Federal Aviation Administration lifted a nationwide ground stop on Friday at 8:30 p.m. ET, allowing airplane departures to resume after a communications failure halted travel across the United States.

The outage stemmed from aging air traffic control technology that became overloaded with data, according to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. He stated that a cyberattack was not the cause of the instability. Duffy estimated that the system requires approximately $50 billion for a complete overhaul and called on Congress for emergency funding.

At the time the ground stop began, 3,500 airplanes were in the sky. By 8:50 p.m., that number had dropped to fewer than 400. Duffy said the process of getting air traffic back to normal would be slow. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told reporters that the public was never in danger and that there was no indication of a nefarious attack.

The FAA said in a statement that it thoroughly tested its systems to confirm stability before clearing flights to resume. Airlines are not required to offer additional compensation because the computer problem is considered outside their control. They must only offer free rebooking or a refund for canceled trips.

Major carriers issued updates as the stop lifted. JetBlue canceled all remaining domestic flights for Friday evening, keeping only Europe-bound departures from Boston and New York. The airline warned that disruptions would continue into the next day. Air Canada canceled all flights between the United States and Canada for the remainder of the evening.

The FAA grounded all flights on Friday afternoon due to extraordinary circumstances and safety reasons. The issue affected 22 regional air traffic control centers that direct planes en route between airports. This is the first nationwide ground stop since January 2023, when a key computer system malfunctioned. The last such event before that occurred after the attacks on September 11, 2001.

Aviation safety expert Steve Arroyo, a former United Airlines pilot, compared the incident to a regional communication outage in September. He noted that the current scale is nationwide. Arroyo explained that if controllers cannot maintain communication with aircraft, they must stop airplanes on the ground to avoid the risk of flying without contact.

Congress approved $12.5 billion last year to overhaul outdated technology, replacing miles of old copper wires with fiber optic lines. The White House is currently lobbying for an additional $30 billion to complete the work. New York Governor Kathy Hochul said she spoke with Port Authority Executive Director Kathryn Garcia and is working to get answers from federal officials.