Washington, Nov 2026 : Air travel disruptions across the United States are expected to continue through Sunday, with thousands of flights cancelled or delayed as airlines struggle to restore normal operations following a nationwide shutdown triggered by technical problems in the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) air traffic control communications system.
FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said on Saturday that flight schedules were unlikely to return to normal until late Sunday. The agency is continuing efforts to stabilise the aviation system and resolve the technical issues responsible for the widespread disruption.
According to aviation tracking website FlightAware, more than 6,150 flights had been cancelled and over 7,300 delayed across the US by 6.45 pm ET (2345 GMT) on Saturday. The situation followed an even more difficult day on Friday, when approximately 9,200 flights were cancelled and another 7,500 experienced delays. More than 530 flights scheduled for Sunday had also been cancelled by Saturday evening.
Bedford apologised to passengers affected by the disruption and assured them that the country's aviation system remained stable. He said the FAA was working to restore normal flight operations, expressing confidence that services would largely recover by late Sunday.
Thousands of passengers have been left stranded at airports across the country, while airlines are facing the difficult task of repositioning aircraft, pilots and cabin crew to resume regular schedules. The operational challenges are expected to continue even as the technical problem is addressed.
The crisis began on Friday after the FAA issued a nationwide ground stop, suspending almost all departing flights across the country for nearly five hours. The interruption was the longest nationwide disruption to air travel since the September 11, 2001, attacks and resulted in one of the worst single days for US aviation.
The scale of the disruption prompted an emergency meeting at the White House, where officials assembled in the Situation Room to assess the situation and investigate its possible causes. Authorities initially examined the possibility of a cyberattack behind the breakdown in the aviation communications system.
However, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy later said investigators had traced the technical problem to the installation of at least one new router by FAA contractor L3Harris at a remote facility.
The FAA's efforts to stabilise air traffic control communications and restore flight schedules remain critical as airlines work to clear the backlog of cancellations and delays.
(Disclaimer :The content of this article is sourced from a news agency and has not been edited by the Mavericknews30 team.)
