Flights began departing major airports across the United States late Friday after the Federal Aviation Administration lifted a nationwide ground stop triggered by a major telecommunications failure.
The rare shutdown lasted more than four hours, grounding departures across the country and leaving thousands of passengers stranded as airlines scrambled to reposition aircraft and crews.
Flights gradually resumed shortly after the FAA lifted the order around 8:15 p.m. ET.
At New York’s LaGuardia Airport, a Southwest Airlines aircraft was seen departing while Delta Air Lines planes began taxiing for takeoff.
Aircraft also resumed departures from Los Angeles International Airport, Reagan National Airport outside Washington and airports around San Francisco.
“The FAA lifted the ground stop and some flight departures are resuming,” the agency said.
“Before clearing flights to resume, we thoroughly tested our systems to confirm they were stable and that operations remain reliable.”
The disruption began Friday afternoon after communications problems affected the FAA’s Air Route Traffic Control Centers, which oversee aircraft traveling through large sections of U.S. airspace.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the problems involved instability in the nation’s aging air traffic control infrastructure.
Officials said technology upgrades being installed in the system overloaded older equipment, producing intermittent communications and radar problems.
“We didn’t lose all telecom. We didn’t lose all radar,” Duffy said. “But that instability, because of abundance of caution and making sure we keep the American flier safe, we did the ground stop.”
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin emphasized there was no evidence that the outage resulted from terrorism or a cyberattack.
“There is no indication and we have no reason to believe, as of right now, that this was a threat to the United States,” Mullin said. “This was a telecommunication outage throughout FAA.”
More than 3,000 airborne flights were safely landed during the disruption, according to administration officials
Approximately 600 flights were diverted, while thousands of additional flights were canceled or delayed.
More than 15,000 flights were affected overall, according to flight-tracking data cited by Fox News.
American Airlines said it was attempting to operate as many remaining flights as possible Friday night while positioning aircraft and crews for Saturday.
“With the FAA’s five-hour nationwide ground stop lifted, American Airlines is focused on operating as many remaining flights as possible this evening while positioning the airline for the strongest possible recovery tomorrow and in the days ahead,” the airline said.
Southwest also announced that it would resume limited operations Friday night.
“After consulting with the FAA and to ensure the highest levels of safety, Southwest Airlines is resuming a limited number of flights this evening,” the carrier said.
The disruption was the longest nationwide ground stop since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, although the circumstances were dramatically different.
The FAA previously imposed another nationwide stop in January 2023 after a computer system responsible for distributing safety notices to pilots malfunctioned.
Despite Friday night’s reopening, the problems continued Saturday.
More than 2,000 flights had already been canceled Saturday morning as airlines worked to restore schedules disrupted by misplaced aircraft and flight crews.
Duffy warned that additional failures involving the aging system remain possible as the government attempts to modernize the nation’s air traffic infrastructure.
“This is all the old legacy equipment,” Duffy said. “All of the new equipment that’s been deployed did not go down.”
Congress previously approved $12.5 billion for air traffic control modernization, while the Trump administration is seeking another $30 billion to accelerate replacement of aging equipment.
For stranded passengers, Friday night’s reopening provided the first significant relief after hours of uncertainty.
But airlines warned that cancellations and delays could continue through the weekend as they work through the enormous logistical backlog created by one of the most disruptive aviation shutdowns in decades.
