Nearly 8,000 US flights cancelled after telecom outage; domestic departures resume

In brief

• Domestic flights in the United States have been allowed to take off again after a multi-hour departure ban.
• Roughly 8,000 flights were cancelled, and a separate count reports over 15,600 delayed or cancelled flights.
• Officials blamed outdated air traffic management technology and overloaded routers for the failure.

Ground halt lifted after several hours

US authorities had halted departures across the country for several hours on Friday morning. According to CNN, domestic flights have been cleared to take off again (Почти 8000 рейсов были отменены в США из-за телекоммуникационного сбоя – TV Rain).

Scale of the disruption

About 8,000 flights were cancelled over the course of the disruption. A separate count reported that more than 15,600 flights were delayed or cancelled, and that more than 1.5 million passengers were affected (Пассажиры часами ждут вылетов из аэропортов США – iz.ru). The two figures come from different tallies and are not directly comparable.

Officials point to aging systems

Transport Secretary Sean Duffy said the failure stemmed from outdated air traffic management technology and overloaded routers. He warned that further outages could follow unless the system is modernised.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin linked the stoppage to ongoing upgrades to these legacy systems by the Federal Aviation Administration. He said the departure ban was not caused by any threat to the United States.

Passengers faced long waits

Travellers at US airports waited for hours for flights to leave, and airlines began rebuilding schedules once the ground stop was lifted.

Read also

• FAA lifts nationwide ground stop after communication outage; nearly 7,000 flights disrupted
• Nationwide ground stop halts US flights after air traffic control communications failure
• US Grounds All Flights Nationwide, Then Lifts Ban After About Four Hours