The United States has reopened its airspace following a nationwide air traffic control system failure that disrupted thousands of flights and left tens of thousands of passengers stranded at airports.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) lifted the nationwide flight restriction on Friday after resolving a technical problem that affected radar and communication systems at air traffic control centres.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced that flight operations resumed at 8:15 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday, although he warned that airlines would need time to restore normal schedules.
According to flight-tracking platform FlightRadar24, more than 6,600 flights were cancelled and 8,600 delayed, while another 1,500 cancellations had already been recorded for Sunday.
Duffy said the disruption began at about 3:36 p.m. when network equipment at air traffic control centres became overloaded, causing inconsistencies in the data transmitted across the system.
He explained that authorities shut down the affected system to prevent further complications, although radar and communication capabilities were never completely lost. He added that thousands of aircraft landed safely during the incident.
The incident has renewed concerns about the state of America’s ageing aviation infrastructure, with Duffy calling on Congress to approve $50 billion for a comprehensive upgrade of the country’s air traffic control system.
Earlier on Friday, the White House and the Department of Transportation had requested $30.1 billion to improve airports and air traffic control infrastructure.
Meanwhile, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said preliminary investigations had found no evidence linking the incident to a cyberattack or a malfunction involving artificial intelligence.
He added that the National Security Agency was working with the Department of Homeland Security to investigate the cause of the failure.
Two airline officials indicated that the disruption may have involved a telecommunications network operated by L3Harris Technologies, which supports radio communications between pilots and air traffic controllers.
Despite the reopening of the airspace, passengers continued to experience delays and cancellations as airlines worked to reorganise their operations. Aviation analysts warned that the disruption could affect flight schedules for several days.
The incident also affected airline stocks, with shares of American Airlines, United Airlines and Delta Air Lines falling between one and two per cent in after-hours trading, while JetBlue Airways dropped about three per cent.
American Airlines said it was prioritising flights to smaller cities and international destinations to reposition aircraft and crew and speed up the recovery of its operations.
US airlines will not be required to compensate affected passengers because the disruption resulted from an FAA system failure rather than circumstances within their control.
The latest incident was the second nationwide suspension of US domestic flight departures since the September 11, 2001, attacks. The previous occurrence was in January 2023, when an outage involving the FAA’s Notice to Air Missions system grounded flights for approximately 90 minutes.
