FAA lifts nationwide ground stop after ATC network failure

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) lifted a nationwide ground stop on the evening of Friday 13 November 2026 after a failure on its air traffic control communications network halted most US departures for more than four hours. Passengers across the country were affected, and the White House has used the disruption to press Congress for $30.1 billion in aviation upgrades, as the Thanksgiving travel period approaches.

What happened

According to AeroTime, ground stops began at Chicago O'Hare and Midway at 3:10 p.m. Eastern time, and shortly before 4 p.m. the FAA Command Center told operators nationwide to hold departures. Aircraft already airborne continued to land or divert. The FAA reopened the airspace at 8:15 p.m., Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said. AirlineGeeks puts the cancellation of the order at around 8:20 p.m. and describes a freeze of roughly five hours; AeroTime says more than four.

AeroTime reports that Cirium had identified 827 diversions by 7:05 p.m., of which 670 returned to their departure airport and 157 landed elsewhere. FlightAware had recorded more than 6,000 cancellations for the day by 9 p.m. A small number of mostly international flights were cleared during the stop, AirlineGeeks says, including from New York JFK, Washington Dulles, Reagan National and Detroit.

The cause

Duffy said ageing routers on the FAA communications network became overloaded and produced inconsistent data, according to AeroTime. AirlineGeeks quotes him as saying old analog communications switches "went down". Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said an attempted technology update caused the system to reboot and crash, and that new equipment and patches appeared to have overwhelmed the older network. AeroTime adds that CBS News, citing multiple sources, reported the update crashed a private network operated by L3Harris. The FAA had not publicly identified the specific update or equipment.

Mullin said there was no evidence of a cyberattack or of any link to the Microsoft outage the previous day. Duffy said the FAA's SMART air traffic management tool played no role. Asked whether it could happen again, he said he could offer no guarantee.

The funding push

That morning Duffy and budget director Russell Vought wrote to Congress seeking $30.1 billion, Simple Flying reports. The request comprises $10.1 billion for ATC modernisation, $2 billion for control towers and $18 billion for airports, including $10 billion for terminals. It follows $12.5 billion approved in July 2025. Democrats, who won the 3 November midterms, take control of Congress in January 2027, so the administration wants action beforehand. Its prospects remain uncertain.

At the evening briefing Duffy said the FAA needs $50 billion, and did not explain how that related to the morning request, AeroTime says.

What this means for travellers

Duffy said flights would take time to restart and advised passengers to contact their airline about cancellations and delays. AeroTime reports that with aircraft and crews out of position, JetBlue cancelled its remaining Friday flights, except Europe-bound departures from New York JFK and Boston, and warned of more cancellations on Saturday. Other airlines' plans were not detailed in the sources.

Duffy said he expected operations to recover before the Thanksgiving rush. Whether the funding will pass, and how soon the underlying weaknesses can be fixed, is not yet known.

Sources: Simple Flying, AeroTime, AirlineGeeks.