Aviation authorities believe disruption impacts stemming from a nationwide ground stop on Friday will be resolved by the end of the weekend.
“Based on everything that we’re hearing from our airline partners, they believe that they’ll be able to have full schedule integrity by the close of business on Sunday,” Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Bryan Bedford said in a news conference Saturday.
“The worst is behind us, but we still do have a significant amount of recovery work to do.”
Officials issued the ground stop around 4 p.m. ET on Friday, initially citing internal communications issues that they later explained had resulted from the routine maintenance practice of switching from copper wire to fiber.
Trending
Out of roughly 20,000 flights left to complete by Friday evening, 12,000 were not able to take off, Bedford estimated.
Sign up for The Stakeout, The Sun’s Congress newsletter you actually want to read.
The FAA began using its new Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes and Trajectories system, an AI system that helps route planes at all of the nation’s 22 major air traffic control centers on Tuesday.
Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, Bedford and Air Space Intelligence — the company that ships SMART — have said the AI system was not responsible for the ground stop.
Aviation officials said the ground stop was necessary for “extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety.”
Friday evening was the second time since 9/11 that officials had issued such a directive. Aviation authorities last called a ground stop after a computer outage barred flight crews from receiving critical safety alerts in 2023.
Author
