FAA nationwide ground stop causes massive US air travel disruption

The Federal Aviation Administration issued a nationwide ground stop for over 4 hours on Friday, November 13, 2026, causing massive air travel disruptions across the United States. This disruption represents the longest nationwide flight ground stop since the September 11, 2001, attacks. The outage affected critical radio frequencies used by air traffic controllers to communicate with pilots, impacting both domestic and international flights, including those at airports in Canada and Mexico.

Scale of flight cancellations

The scale of the disruption was significant for both Friday and Saturday. On Friday, November 13, 2026, the Federal Aviation Administration was unable to reschedule 12,000 flights, which consisted of approximately 9,000 commercial flights and 3,000 private flights. FlightAware reported 8,860 cancellations for Friday, November 13, 2026, and approximately 2,650 cancellations for Saturday, November 14, 2026. While FlightAware reported that the total number of cancellations for the two-day period exceeded 11,500, other estimates suggested that total cancellations exceeded 16,000.

For Saturday, November 14, 2026, the Federal Aviation Administration estimated that between 4,000 and 5,000 of the 41,000 scheduled flights would likely be canceled. To manage the resulting congestion, United Airlines and Delta Air Lines announced ground stops at Chicago O'Hare and New York LaGuardia airports on Saturday, November 14, 2026.

Causes of the system outage

The crisis was linked to the overloading of aging telecommunications equipment and a shortage of several thousand air traffic controllers. The air traffic control system relies on aging technology from the 1980s. This technical vulnerability, combined with staffing shortages, contributed to the communication failure during the outage.

Funding for system upgrades

US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy stated that the situation is an emergency and requires 50 billion US dollars in funding to upgrade air traffic control systems. This requested amount represents a significant increase from the 30 billion US dollars previously sought by Secretary Sean Duffy for similar upgrades. The disruption occurred at 3:36 p.m. ET on Friday, November 13, 2026.

FAA Administrator Brian Bentford oversaw the agency during the period of disruption. The agency continues to manage the aftermath of the outage as it addresses the underlying issues of aging infrastructure and personnel shortages within the air traffic control system.

Glossary

• ground stop — A ground stop or ground delay is an action issued by the FAA. It can be issued due to an equipment outage.
• September 11, 2001, attacks — These were attacks on the World Trade Center. During the rescue efforts, FBI agent Leonard W. Hatton Jr. was killed.
• Chicago O'Hare — This is an airport located southwest of the Loop in downtown Chicago. It is served by Coach USA/Wisconsin Coach from Chicago O'Hare and by Amtrak Hiawatha from Chicago Union Station.
• New York LaGuardia — This is an airport located in New York City. In 1987, Western airline operated four round trip flights a day between Boston and this airport.