Global delays continue as US flights resume after rare nationwide grounding

Weary travellers braced for more delays and cancellations as flights resumed from United States airports after being grounded for four hours yesterday because of a major outage on outdated communications systems.

The nationwide stop sparked widespread chaos and left hundreds of thousands of passengers in limbo, with some pulled off planes moments before departure by airline staff who appeared to be in the dark about unfolding events.

More than 20,000 flights were affected by the stoppage, and the consequences were felt across the industry, with more than 3900 US flights already cancelled today and another 2500 delayed, according to tracking website FlightAware.

In the United Kingdom, flights were cancelled or delayed after the US communications failure. As the UK is a hub from international travellers connecting to flights throughout Europe, the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority has warned that the ripple effect of disruption could affect millions of travellers.

US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy sought to assure Americans it remained “safe to fly” but warned it would take time to resume normal service.

“Operations are slowly returning to normal this morning. Planes are pushing back, taxiing, and taking off, and it is safe to fly.

“You will continue to see some delays and cancellations as carriers reschedule flights and reposition aircraft/crews where they are needed most.”

It was only the second time such a ground stoppage had been issued in US airspace – which is among the busiest in the world – since the 9/11 attacks.

Steven Rathe, 77, who was waiting to embark on a four-leg trip from New York to Albuquerque, said: “No one expects the whole airline system to go down. We’re lucky it wasn’t longer. So, they’re flying today and for that I’m grateful.”

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said in a statement: “We appreciate your continued patience as operations return to normal”.

The ground stoppage not only plunged US air travel into chaos, it raised serious concerns about the country’s ageing infrastructure.

Trump Administration officials blamed decades-old equipment and said there was no evidence of foul-play, although the outage highlighted the potential vulnerability of the system to cyberattacks.

“We use 1980s little copper lines. It’s an old system that went down and went down everywhere. It got overloaded,” Duffy said.

He appealed for US$50 billion ($90b) in funds to upgrade and modernise the air traffic control system.

US lawmakers called for investigations into what caused the massive disruption and whether the country was adequately secure from cyber criminality.

Republican Senator Eric Schmitt said on X: “No more kicking the can. If today proves anything, it’s that we need to update our air traffic control system and rebuild our airport infrastructure.”

US President Donald Trump was uncharacteristically quiet about the outage. As of this morning, he had made no public statement about the stoppage.

The nationwide halt had lasted about four hours and footage from airports showed gates full, with planes waiting on taxiways and passengers thronging concourses, desperate for information.

FAA officials reopened the airspace “after restoring full functionality” at air traffic control facilities, according to Duffy.

Tim Johnson, consumer director at the UK Civil Aviation Authority, said that while US flights have resumed, “there may be some follow-on disruption as airlines work to re-book affected passengers and get all services back to normal”.

A nationwide ground stop is highly unusual.

There was one such stop in January 2023 when a pilot notification system failed, but the only other national stoppage happened after the 9/11 attacks in September 2001, when no commercial aircraft flew for days.

- AFP