Thousands of US flights canceled, delayed as air travel system recovers from shutdown

On November 14, thousands of US flights were canceled and thousands more delayed as the US sought to recover from the longest shutdown of flights since September 11, 2001. A massive communication failure caused the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to issue a nationwide ground stop that halted nearly all departing flights for almost five hours.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the issue was being investigated to determine if it was due to incompetence, user error, or a faulty router installed by contractor L3Harris. Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, and American Airlines canceled about 20% of their flights, while JetBlue canceled 40%. The FAA lifted the ground stop around 8:15 p.m. ET on Friday, but the disruption for passengers was far from over, with tens of thousands still stranded at airports.

Airlines worked to unclog airports and get flight crews and personnel in position to recover. Many major airports could not handle any more diversions as they tried to bring airplanes back in the sky.