Flights Resume After FAA Ground Stop, but Cancelations and Confusion Continue

U.S. airspace reopened Friday night after a communications failure kept every departing plane on the ground for more than 4 hours — only the second national ground stop since September 11, 2001.

Planes are moving again. That’s the good news. Thousands of travelers are still stranded, though, and airlines expect the disruption to last well into the weekend.

Here’s an update on the situation as of today, Saturday, and what you can do if your trip still has question marks.

Flights Resumed After More Than 4 Hours

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued the nationwide ground stop at 3:54 p.m. ET on Friday, November 13, because of a telecommunications outage affecting air route traffic control centers. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said airspace reopened at 8:15 p.m. ET. The FAA said it “thoroughly tested” its systems to confirm they were stable before clearing flights to resume.

By then, the damage was already done.

More than 3,500 planes were in the air when the ground stop went into effect. At least 827 flights had been diverted by 7:05 p.m. ET, according to Cirium data checked by Newsweek. FlightAware counted 9,159 canceled flights and 7,190 delays on Friday, making it the second-worst day for U.S. airlines this year.

What’s Flying and What Isn’t at This Point?

Saturday is going better, though not by much. More than 3,600 flights within, into, or out of the U.S. have already been canceled for today, according to reporting by CNN. Delays are much lower than Friday’s because airlines are canceling flights in advance to get planes and crews back where they belong.

The prospects for your flight today depend a lot on which airline you booked:

• JetBlue is in the worst shape. It had canceled 335 flights, 40% of its schedule — currently the highest share among major U.S. airlines.
• Delta Air Lines has canceled 20% of its Saturday flights — 640 cancelations (the highest overall number)
• United Airlines canceled 17%.
• American Airlines canceled 15%.
• Southwest Airlines canceled 304 flights.
• Alaska Airlines hadn’t released Saturday figures, though the carrier said some flights within Alaska and Hawaii weren’t affected.

The busiest hubs have the most cancellations so far.

Atlanta (ATL) led with 114, New York-JFK and Boston Logan (BOS) had 105 each, and Chicago O’Hare (ORD) had 99 cancelations. The effects reach internationally, as well. U.S.-bound flights to Dallas, Los Angeles, and Chicago were canceled at London Heathrow (LHR) on Saturday morning.

For passengers, airlines are offering change waivers. That’s good news if you’ve got flexibility in your travel plans and don’t want to deal with a hectic airport.

Delta’s covers flights on November 13 and 14 rebooked for travel on or before November 21. American’s covers 21 airports, including Atlanta, O’Hare, Dallas, JFK and LaGuardia. United, Southwest, Alaska, and Frontier have also published waivers.

What Caused the Outage?

The full answer isn’t clear yet. Duffy said the trouble started at 3:36 p.m. ET, explaining that aging routers on the FAA’s communications network became overloaded. When that happened, they began producing inconsistent data. He said the newer IP switches didn’t go down.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin gave a slightly different account. He said the overload appeared to have been triggered by new equipment the FAA was installing.

Neither official said what that equipment was. CBS News sources said an update to the private communications network connecting the air traffic control system caused a reboot and crash. Sources also told CBS they were getting conflicting information about the cause.

However, officials have ruled out 3 theories:

• A cyberattack: Mullin said there’s no evidence of any cyberattack, though he added that “there’s nothing completely certain right now” about the cause.
• The Microsoft outage: Microsoft said it has no indication the ground stop was related to its own service disruption happening earlier.
• The FAA’s new AI tool: Duffy said the SMART traffic-planning system isn’t connected to the core systems controllers use to track flights.

What’s still unknown is which piece of equipment failed first and why it gave out on a seemingly ordinary Friday afternoon. When reporters pressed on that point, Duffy didn’t have a response.

What You Can Do Now

Check for updates before you leave home. Confirm your flight in the airline’s app before heading to the airport. Gate assignments and schedules are changing fast.

Know your refund rights. If your flight was canceled, delayed more than 3 hours domestically, or delayed by 6+ hours internationally, and you decide not to fly because of this, you’re owed a full refund. The cause doesn’t matter, and basic economy tickets are included in this rule. If you were stuck on a layover and chose not to continue, you’re only owed a refund for the part of ticket fare that relates to the second leg — the flight you didn’t take.

Don’t count on airline meals or hotels. DOT rules don’t require airlines to cover your expenses if they can prove a delay or cancelation was beyond their control — which a ground stop certainly is. Airlines can still choose to cover your costs, so it’s worth asking.

Read your travel insurance carefully. A standalone policy may cover trip delay or interruption. You should verify whether it names air traffic control or government action as a covered cause. If the policy was bought after problems kicked off, it won’t cover the costs you incur along the way.

Check your credit card, but expect some uncertainty. Travel insurance coverage from a credit card is a gray area right now. Chase’s trip delay benefit covers equipment failure, inclement weather, labor strikes, and hijacking or skyjacking. Coverage on the best cards kicks in after a 6-hour delay or one that requires an overnight stay.

The open question is whether an FAA communications failure counts as “equipment failure.” Experts disagree on this. Regardless of what you read online, file a claim anyway. A statement from the airline explaining the delay helps, and you typically have up to 90 days after an event to file a claim.

Save everything. Keep itemized receipts for meals, hotels, transportation, and toiletries. Screenshot every delay and cancellation notice. Take photos of the departures boards at the airport if you’re there. Keep your original and updated itineraries along with the credit card statement showing the ticket purchase and transactions for incidentals.

Final Thoughts

The system is running again, but the backlog will take a few days to clear out. If your flight was canceled, decide quickly between rebooking and taking a refund. Open seats are disappearing quickly.

You should also get the cause of your delay in writing. That detail could decide whether your credit card or insurance pays you back for costs you incur while this all gets sorted out.