The key facts
- Friday's ground stop lasted four hours and was the third in US history and the longest since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks
- According to FlightAware, by Saturday evening more than 6,100 flights had been cancelled and about 7,400 delayed
- Sean Duffy raised the request for FAA modernisation from $30 billion to $50 billion
Recovery after the outage
Air traffic in the United States will soon return to normal after a nationwide ground stop that disrupted travel, including for international passengers, according to a senior official in Donald Trump's administration. This was reported by The National, citing a statement by Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who said that 'today everything will return to normal, fully normal — tomorrow.'
Scale of the consequences
Airlines were hastily rebuilding their schedules: according to FlightAware, by Saturday evening more than 6,100 flights had been cancelled and about 7,400 delayed. On Sunday, more than 1,540 flights were cancelled and more than 1,330 delayed. Carriers had to rebuild their schedules from scratch because aircraft and crews were scattered at non-standard locations — Delta Air Lines separately noted that reconfiguring operations, including repositioning aircraft and crews, would take time.
Cause of the outage and the authorities' response
Friday's ground stop lasted four hours: according to the authorities, an overload of data paralysed the communications and radar systems of air traffic control. It was the longest stoppage in the US since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and only the third in the country's history. According to Duffy, the problem arose after a contractor, L3Harris Technologies, replaced an outdated copper cable at a remote site: the router began flooding the air traffic control system with connection attempts. 'This was an FAA system that was not up to the moment,' he said, adding that he could not apologise for what he was 'handed down,' since the problem had accumulated over 20–30 years of underinvestment. FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford, for his part, apologised for the outage and said that 'the worst is behind us,' although recovery work with the airlines is still ongoing.
Funding for modernisation
Congress allocated the FAA $12.5 billion for modernisation last year, but Duffy insists that additional funds are needed: after Friday's outage, he raised his initial request from $30 billion to $50 billion.
