Air traffic in the U.S. is gradually recovering after a nationwide flight shutdown lasting more than four hours and causing widespread schedule disruptions. The Federal Aviation Administration lifted the restriction at around 8:15 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday, after which a limited number of domestic flights began departing from U.S. airports.
However, the effects continued into Saturday. More than 2,500 flights in the U.S. were canceled, while hundreds of others were delayed, according to FlightAware data. Airlines began rearranging crews, aircraft and reservations, but authorities warned that returning to a normal schedule would take time.
Representatives of President Donald Trump’s administration said that new technologies added to the air traffic control system had overloaded outdated equipment. This led to communications disruptions and gaps in radar coverage, making the flight shutdown necessary for safety reasons.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the system had been restarted after the problem was identified, but warned that further disruptions were possible. “We didn’t think we would have this kind of outage. But we did,” he said. According to Duffy, the newly introduced equipment had not failed; the problem was with the legacy infrastructure.
Homeland Security Secretary Marquain Mullen said there was no evidence of a cyberattack or other malicious interference. He said more than 3,000 aircraft had landed safely while the shutdown was in effect. Authorities expect the system to operate normally during the busy period around Thanksgiving on November 26.
The problems also spilled over into international routes. At London’s Heathrow Airport, American Airlines flights to Dallas and Los Angeles, British Airways flights to New York, as well as Delta Air Lines flights from Atlanta, American Airlines flights from Miami and United Airlines flights from Chicago were listed as canceled or delayed.
“Although flights to the U.S. have resumed, there may be further disruption as airlines rebook affected passengers and restore the normal operation of all services,” said Tim Johnson, director of consumer affairs at the UK Civil Aviation Authority.
Passengers whose flights have been canceled should contact the airline directly. Carriers are required to offer free rebooking if the customer wishes to continue their journey, or a refund if they decide not to travel.
The nationwide shutdown also disrupted the schedules of sports teams that were due to travel to games over the weekend. College football teams changed kickoff times, searched for hotel rooms and hired buses. Auburn traveled by bus to Mississippi State, while the game between Ole Miss and Oklahoma was moved to Sunday.
NBA, NHL and college teams were also affected. Some teams returned to their campuses, while others waited for flights to resume or changed their routes. The shutdown was the first nationwide one since the failure of the pilot-notification system in January 2023 and the second since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.