Air traffic in the United States is expected to return to its normal schedule by the end of Sunday after a nationwide flight shutdown caused thousands of cancellations and delays. Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Bryan Bedford said the air traffic control system is stable and airlines expect to restore their full schedules.
“The worst is behind us,” Bedford said, quoted by The Associated Press. According to him, airlines expect “full schedule accuracy” by the end of Sunday. Nevertheless, the consequences of the shutdown continued into Saturday, when carriers canceled more than 5,000 flights to rearrange their aircraft and crews.
The FAA issued a nationwide flight takeoff ban on November 13. The measure lasted more than four hours and was lifted at around 20:15 Eastern Time. It was the longest shutdown of its kind in the United States in 25 years. It was the second-largest after the September 11, 2001, attacks, with the previous nationwide disruption occurring in January 2023, when a failure in the system for notifying pilots led to a flight suspension.
When the ban was imposed, around 3,500 aircraft were in the air. According to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, all of them landed safely in accordance with established procedures. Flights were suspended as a precaution after authorities detected instability in communications and radar data.
Duffy linked the disruption to technical work at a remote FAA facility, where a contractor was replacing old copper telecommunications lines with fiber-optic cables. According to him, during the transition, a router began overloading other devices on the network. This led to problems in communication between controllers and pilots, as well as interruptions in some radar data.
Bedford said instability in communications frequencies had been detected at up to 17 of the country’s 22 regional air traffic control centers. The cause of the specific technical failure is still being investigated, with Duffy pointing to a possible contractor error or equipment malfunction.
The FAA and US authorities stressed that there was no evidence of a cyberattack or malicious interference. There had also been no immediate threat to the public. Nevertheless, the incident intensified pressure on Congress to accelerate the modernization of the outdated air traffic control infrastructure.
The FAA expects the main schedule to be restored by the end of Sunday, but individual canceled or delayed flights may continue to affect passengers as airlines redistribute their aircraft and crews.
Sources: apnews.com, axios.com