Air travel issues to persist well into Sunday, officials say, with thousands of flights affected
WASHINGTON — The head of the FAA predicted that US air travel would not return to normal schedules until late Sunday as the aviation system gradually recovers from a nationwide flight shutdown that officials blamed on routine maintenance gone awry. As of 4:15 pm ET (2115 GMT), airlines on Saturday had canceled more than 5,300 US flights and delayed almost 6,300, according to FlightAware, an…
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) head Bryan Bedford has forecast that the United States air travel industry will not return to its usual schedules until late Sunday. This follows a nationwide flight shutdown caused by maintenance issues that have disrupted air traffic communications. As of 4:15 pm ET on Saturday, airlines had canceled over 5,300 US flights and delayed nearly 6,300 due to the ongoing problems.
The FAA imposed a nationwide ground stop on Friday, halting almost all departing flights for nearly five hours. This action was the longest such halt since the September 11, 2001 attacks and one of the worst days for US travel. The FAA issued an apology for the disruption and stated that the system remains stable. Bedford assured that airline operations are expected to largely resume normalcy by late Sunday.
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