Shannon Stapleton | Reuters
The Federal Aviation Administration lifted a nationwide grounding of planes Wednesday morning after a technology outage delayed thousands of flights, but airlines warned the problem would continue to disrupt travel throughout the day.
The FAA said early Wednesday that domestic flights would be grounded until at least 9 a.m. ET while the agency works to restore the Air Mission Notification System, which is responsible for sending messages to all pilots, such as runway closures, hazards and other information.
All flights currently in the air were safe to land, the agency said.
More than 4,300 U.S. flights were delayed as of 9:10 a.m. ET, according to flight tracker FlightAware, and residual delays could last hours from backup after the ground shutdown is lifted.
Delta, United and Southwest said schedule adjustments are likely Wednesday. Airlines regularly delay their schedules so that airports are not overwhelmed by planes without parking space.
More than 700 US flights were canceled on Wednesday. More than 23,000 flights are scheduled to, from and within the US, according to aviation data company Cirium.
“This technology issue is causing significant operational delays across the National Airspace System,” said Airlines for America, an industry group that represents major U.S. carriers, including Delta, American, United, Southwest and other.
By 8:15 a.m. ET, flights had resumed from Newark Liberty International Airport and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the FAA said.
The White House said Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg informed President Joe Biden of the outage.
“There is no evidence of a cyberattack at this point, but the president has directed the DOT to conduct a full investigation into the cause,” White House press secretary Karin Jean-Pierre said said in a tweet.
An FAA system crash led to a mass cancellation in the US on January 11, 2023.
Flightaware
The incident comes just weeks after bad weather during the busy holiday period caused mass flight disruptions in the US and days later, more than 15,000 Southwest flights were canceled after the carrier abandoned all schedule changes.
Southwest is preparing to cancel flights on Wednesday to avoid further disruption, Casey Murray, president of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association, told CNBC.
Shares of Southwest were about 1 percent lower in premarket trading Wednesday. Shares of other major airlines were little changed.
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