The United States Federal Aviation Administration, FAA, has reopened the country’s airspace after grounding departing flights nationwide for more than four hours over a telecommunications failure linked to outdated equipment.
The FAA announced that the restrictions were lifted at 8:15pm Eastern Time on Friday (00:15 GMT on Saturday), following a disruption that affected communications at air traffic control facilities.
The nationwide ground stop was imposed at 3:54pm Eastern Time on Friday, with authorities citing safety concerns arising from communication problems affecting air traffic control towers and centres.
US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed the reopening of the airspace but warned that normal flight operations would take time to resume.
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“It’s going to be slow,” he added, advising passengers to contact their airlines for updates.
Duffy said the resumption of flights would depend partly on the availability of pilots and flight attendants, as airlines worked to restore disrupted services.
According to aviation analytics firm Cirium, approximately 11,000 flights carrying more than 1.5 million passengers were still scheduled to depart from US airports after 4pm Eastern Time on Friday.
By 7:05pm, at least 827 flights had been diverted, including 670 that returned to their departure airports and 157 redirected to other destinations.
Aircraft already airborne were allowed to continue to their destinations and land during the suspension, while some international flights were permitted to depart on a case-by-case basis.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin sought to reassure the public, saying: “Everybody’s safe.”
He also dismissed fears of a major security incident, insisting that the disruption was not “another 9/11”.
The incident marks the first nationwide US ground stop since January 2023, when a malfunction in a key FAA computer system disrupted flight operations.
It is also the third nationwide suspension of departing flights since the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Meanwhile, passengers reported confusion and frustration at airports as they struggled to obtain information and arrange alternative travel.
At Los Angeles International Airport, a stranded passenger, Nicholas Erdodi, who had travelled from New Zealand and was heading to Chicago, told Al Jazeera that he had spent several hours waiting after being asked to leave his aircraft.
“The challenge is you cannot ask anyone here what to do,” he said.
“Lack of information is what bothers me, I mean, and not to mention find the hotel for the night, not to mention all the cost.”
Although Erdodi said he had been rebooked, uncertainty remained over whether his replacement flight would depart as scheduled.
Aviation analysts warned that airlines could require several days to fully restore their flight schedules.
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