The Federal Aviation Administration on Friday ordered the first nationwide ground stop since January 2023, when a key FAA computer system malfunctioned.
Before that, the last time had been after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
United States Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin said this was a telecommunications outage and not linked to a cyberattack.
The ground stop was lifted just after 8:30 p.m. ET.
Although the ground stop lasted just over four hours, federal authorities said it could take time to untangle the travel mess.
Boston’s Massport said that passengers can expect a lot of delays similar to what happens during a major storm.
Massport’s former director, Tom Kinton, said this won’t be a quick fix.
“This is going to take days,” he said. “You’re going to have canceled flights, you’re going to have crews out of position, which means it’s going to take a long time to unravel, unfortunately.”
Kinton also said that crew hours will become a factor as the ground stoppage continues.
“The vast majority of flights are stuck on the ground, which means eventually crews are going to time out, which means flights are going to be canceled and now passengers are going to be scrambling to get on other flights leading into some of the busiest travel time this country experiences on an annual basis – before Thanksgiving and then, obviously, Thanksgiving week,” Kinton said.
