NEW YORK: Weary travelers endured more flight disruptions as service resumed at US airports after an hours-long total stoppage, with officials saying the situation should return to normal Sunday.
The Trump administration blamed the mess that began Friday on a botched replacement of old copper wire communication lines.
The nationwide ground stop — meaning no planes can take off — sparked widespread chaos and left hundreds of thousands of passengers in limbo, with some pulled off planes moments before they were due to depart by airline staff who appeared in the dark about unfolding events.
“Tired. Exhausted. Frustrated. Yeah, you know, it’s just a mess, right?” Lisa Beraid, 48, who works for an insurance company, told AFP as she waited for a flight Saturday morning at New York’s La Guardia airport.
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) chief Bryan Bedford said that 12,000 flights were canceled on Friday and between four and five thousand flights out of 41,000 scheduled for Saturday were likely to be canceled as well.
But as of Saturday evening, the tracking website FlightAware had recorded more than 6,200 canceled flights.
Speaking at a news conference in Washington, Bedford offered a “sincere apology to the American traveling public.”
He predicted a full resumption of flight schedules by “close of business on Sunday.”
