US lifts nationwide flight halt after communications failure

WASHINGTON

AA photo.

The United States lifted a nationwide halt on flight departures on Nov. 13 after communications problems disrupted air traffic control for more than four hours, with officials warning that services would take time to recover.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the restriction ended at 8:15 p.m. Eastern time, or 4:15 a.m. in Türkiye on Nov. 14. Air traffic control centers and terminal approach facilities were operating again, he told a White House briefing.

Flight-tracking website FlightAware recorded more than 8,600 cancellations and 7,200 delays on flights within, into or out of the United States on Nov. 13.

Duffy said radar and communications systems began experiencing instability at 3:36 p.m., prompting the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to halt departures as a precaution.

He blamed older switches and routers that had become overloaded and produced inconsistent data, saying recently upgraded equipment had not been affected.

The lifting of restrictions would not mean an immediate return to normal schedules, Duffy cautioned, with flights also dependent on the availability of pilots and cabin crews.

“It's going to take us some time to unwind what's happened this afternoon,” he said.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said investigators had found no evidence of a cyberattack, though the inquiry was continuing and that possibility had not been ruled out.

He said there was no connection to a Microsoft outage and maintained that no flights had been endangered.

Duffy called for $50 billion to modernize the air traffic control system, saying temporary repairs were insufficient to address its aging infrastructure.

Earlier that day, the administration had requested $30.1 billion for airport improvements and air traffic control upgrades.

Congress approved $12.5 billion over five years in July 2025 to modernize air traffic control and increase controller hiring.

Duffy said that funding covered only part of the work needed.