Thousands of US flights canceled, delayed as air travel system recovers from shutdown
XLI•US airlines canceled more than 3,700 flights and delayed 2,000 on Saturday as they recovered from a nationwide FAA ground stop that led to nearly 10,000 cancellations and more than 7,000 delays on Friday. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy called for $50 billion to upgrade air traffic control systems.
1. Disruption continues
Airlines canceled more than 3,700 US flights and delayed 2,000 more on Saturday, while tens of thousands of passengers remained stranded after Friday’s nationwide ground stop. Airlines worked to reposition aircraft and crews, and United and Delta announced ground stops at Chicago O’Hare and New York LaGuardia, respectively, to manage congestion and gate issues.
2. System outage and funding
The FAA’s Friday ground stop halted nearly all departing flights for almost five hours and forced airlines to cancel nearly 10,000 flights and delay more than 7,000. Two airline officials said an outage appeared to affect a network handling radio frequencies used by air traffic controllers. Duffy said overloaded switches and routers produced inconsistent data, and called for $50 billion to upgrade air traffic control systems, describing the situation as an emergency.
3. Investigation and airline impact
Duffy said the immediate problem had been fixed and flying was safe, while warning that a broader overhaul was needed. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said there was zero evidence so far of a cyberattack or rogue AI involvement, though investigators had not ruled out either possibility. American, United and Delta shares fell between 1% and 2% in after-hours trading on Friday, while JetBlue fell about 3%.
