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…
Washington - The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) head foresees US air travel failing to resume typical schedules until late Sunday, as the aviation system slowly recovers from a nationwide flight shutdown deemed the result of routine maintenance mishaps. By 4:15 pm Eastern Time (2115 GMT) on Saturday, airlines had cancelled more than 5,300 US flights and delayed nearly 6,300, according to FlightAware, an aviation website.
This followed about 9,200 flights cancelled and 7,500 delayed on Friday following the FAA's nationwide ground stop due to disruptions in air traffic communications.
FAA chief Bryan Bedford announced on Saturday that he anticipates airline operations to largely revert to normal by late Sunday. He also expressed regret for the disruption, adding that the system remains stable. The FAA imposed a nationwide ground stop on Friday, halting nearly all departing flights for nearly five hours - the longest such halt since the September 11, 2001 attacks and among the most significant travel days in US history. This incident prompted the White House to issue a statement.
Written by urgent.news from The Korea Times's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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