TORONTO — The knock-on effects from last night’s FAA-ordered ground stop in the U.S. could drag on for days.
The FAA’s order, which grounded flights at airports across the U.S., and inbound flights as well, lifted last night at 8:15 p.m. after more than four hours.
Flight tracking site FlightAware showed more than 2,500 cancellations and hundreds of delays so far today, Nov. 14. Yesterday’s tally in the wake of the ground stop: approximately 9,100 cancellations and 7,030 delays. Some 600 flights had to be diverted, with 104 sent to other airports, according to Cirium.
AGING INFRASTRUCTURE
What triggered the ground stop? Regional air traffic control centres’ telecommunications routers were hit with a data overload.
Aging infrastructure within U.S. air traffic control and FAA systems has been a years-long concern, with some equipment dating back to the 1970s, and some of the tech going back to the 1980s.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned that without more funding, U.S. air traffic control infrastructure is going to continue to fail.
“Today’s nationwide ground stop happened because our air traffic control system is operating on DECADES-OLD, analog equipment that simply cannot compete with the demands of the 21st century,” said Duffy in an X post.
In a media briefing last night, Duffy said the outdated switches and routers became overloaded with data and started giving inconsistent data, “and because of that, we shut the system down.”
He said: “Let’s not do a patchwork fix to a system that’s critical for every single family. It’s not red. It’s not blue. It’s not Democrat. It’s not Republican. It’s American. Give us the money to fix it.”
Duffy noted that the U.S. administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill included US$12.5 billion for the first portion of the overhaul, and that work is expected to be completed within the next two years.
“We’re moving at a speed that has never been seen before at the FAA,” said Duffy. “But that’s only partial funding. I think America demands that Congress provide the rest of the resources to finish the job. The president has asked for $30 billion. I want $50 billion.”
It’s not just the tech that’s outdated, he added.
“Many of our air traffic control towers are almost 100 years old. Our air traffic controllers work in towers with leaking roofs, air conditioning that doesn’t work and elevators that don’t function. They’re high in the air, their elevators don’t work and their roofs leak. I want new towers. We should also invest in airports around the country because, frankly, many of them are embarrassing.”
“Let’s get the money. Let’s invest so we never again have to hold a press conference at 8:30 at night to explain why air travel was shut down.
“We shouldn’t have tens of thousands of people stranded in airports, separated from their families, without knowing where they’re going to sleep tonight.”
“WE CONTINUE TO SUPPORT THE SAFE MOVEMENT OF AIR TRAFFIC IN OUR AIRSPACE”: NAV CANADA
Flights out of and into the U.S. into and out of Canadian and international airports were impacted, as well as flights flying over U.S. airspace, including some flights from Canada to the Caribbean, Mexico and Central and South America.
In an X post on Friday night NAV Canada said its systems were operating normally and there is currently no impact to our operations. “We continue to support the safe movement of air traffic in our airspace, including any aircraft that may be diverted,” said NAV Canada.
In a 9:30 p.m. post last night on X, Pearson Airport said that while the FAA had lifted the ground stop, there were still disruptions and cancellations with U.S. flights arriving at and departing from Pearson, as airlines worked to restore their normal flight schedules.
