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US aviation agency lifts nationwide ground stop affecting all air travel
Chaos at US airports as flight stoppage grinds travel plans to a halt
We’re wrapping up this live coverage of the US ground stop and travel chaos that followed – it’s just passed 12.50am in Washington DC. Below’s a rundown on what happened, and you can read a full report here. Thanks for being with us.
The Federal Aviation Administration declared a nationwide ground stop on Friday afternoon, throwing airports into sudden chaos, after a communications failure at air traffic control centres.
More than 6,600 flights were cancelled and 8,600 delayed, with another 1,500 already cancelled for Sunday, according to FlightRadar24. Aviation analysts said the four-hour nationwide grounding could disrupt airline schedules for days. It was the longest flight shutdown since the attacks of September 11 2001.
The FAA lifted the ground stop later on Friday, with transportation secretary Sean Duffy saying US airspace reopened at 8.15pm ET (0115 GMT). But departures would resume gradually and it would take time for airlines to restore normal operations, he warned. “It’s going to be slow.”
All US-bound departures from European airports are suspended until 5am UTC on Saturday, according to a notice published by the European traffic control agency, Eurocontrol.
