Flugverkehr: Landesweites Startverbot in den USA nach vier Stunden aufgehoben

The nationwide flight ban in the USA was lifted after approximately four hours, according to the headline. The US aviation safety authority, FAA, had halted air traffic across the country on Friday evening. Flights were granted "until further notice" a starter permit. Incoming international flights were inspected case by case. The agency initially attributed the reasons to "exceptional circumstances" and safety concerns.

Specific details were not provided by the FAA at first. During a press conference at the White House, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin stated on the late Friday evening that an outdated flight safety system and overloaded routers were responsible for the outage. The Homeland Security Secretary emphasized the need to completely replace the current air traffic control system.

Mullin also pointed out that Congress must release funds to finance a comprehensive update of these systems. Duffy mentioned he expected more such outages in the future. Republicans hold a majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Last year, they already allocated $12.5 billion for the renovation of the outdated FAA communication system through the "Big Beautiful Bill" in the budget law.

The FAA and the White House had previously requested the Congress for $30.1 billion to address other issues just on Friday.