FAA Halts All US Departures After Communication Failure at Air Traffic Control Centres

The FAA said it acted "following communication issues impacting multiple Air Route Traffic Control Centers" and cited "extraordinary circumstances" and "reasons of safety." Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy went further in a post on X, describing "a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers." There are 22 such centres. Duffy said "FAA technicians are investigating the issue."

Nationwide ground stops are extremely rare. The last one came in January 2023, when the system that sends safety notices to pilots failed and departures were held for less than two hours. Before that, US airspace was shut after the September 11, 2001 attacks. Friday's halt hits the US air traffic system at the start of a weekend, and it adds to pressure on a network the government is already asking Congress to spend tens of billions of dollars to rebuild.

What Failed

The FAA has not identified the technical fault. Its website listed the cause as an "equipment outage," and the site itself was briefly unavailable, according to TechCrunch. An advisory also cited frequency problems across the national airspace system and listed the stop as effective from 3:54 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. Eastern time. It also told departing aircraft to stay on the ground "until further notice," so the listed end time does not guarantee that flights will restart then. Inbound international flights are being handled case by case. Aircraft already in the air were allowed to continue to their destinations.

An internal Alaska Airlines message seen by CNBC described the problems as affecting communications and radar. Before the nationwide order, the FAA had stopped departures at Chicago's O'Hare and Midway airports over an equipment outage.

The outage came the same week the FAA said it would extend an AI-based traffic management tool to all 22 en route centres. TechCrunch noted that it is unclear whether the two are connected, and the FAA has not suggested any link.

Flights and Airlines

Reuters reported that nearly 7,000 flights had been delayed or cancelled. The FAA has not released its own figures. United Airlines said "airborne flights will continue" and that it would help customers reach their destinations once the problem is fixed. Disruption tends to compound the longer a stop lasts, because crews run up against their legal maximum duty hours and aircraft end up out of position for the next day's schedule.

For travellers in the Gulf, the immediate question is long-haul service to the US. As of Friday evening Emirates and Etihad had not confirmed any cancellations or delays linked to the stop, and passengers flying between the UAE and the US were advised to check flight status with their airline before leaving for the airport.

A System Already Under Strain

US air traffic control has suffered repeated equipment failures, communication outages and controller shortages while the FAA tries to replace ageing infrastructure. Congress approved $12.5 billion for the overhaul last year, and on Friday the FAA and the White House asked lawmakers for another $30.1 billion.

The FAA has given no estimate of when departures will restart. Its root-cause findings, and whether the communications failure began in hardware, software or a supplier's network, will shape the next round of debate in Congress over that funding request.