The suspension of flight departures across the United States was lifted after more than 4 hours, causing passenger delays

The Federal Aviation Administration lifted the suspension of flights across the United States issued earlier at approximately 8:15 p.m. Eastern time, but it will still take time for flights to resume normal operations. China Airlines and Evergreen's evening flight from San Francisco to Taipei is expected to take off normally. Passengers taking domestic flights in the United States told reporters that their vacation and wedding schedules were affected.

After the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) lifted the suspension of flights across the United States, air traffic across the United States has not yet returned to normal.

According to statistics from flight tracking website Flightradar24 cited by Reuters, more than 6,600 flights have been canceled and 8,600 delayed in the United States. The actual scope of the impact is unclear.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said it may take some time to return to original flight operations.

Flight operations at the three major airports in the San Francisco Bay Area, including San Francisco International Airport (SFO), San Jose International Airport (SJC), and Oakland San Francisco Bay Area Airport (OAK), are also in chaos.

American passenger Dan Sullivan told CNA that he was originally going to fly to Ontario International Airport (ONT) in the greater Los Angeles area to attend his nephew's wedding. The wedding will be held tomorrow. Due to flight delays, he was not sure whether he could make it.

Sullivan said that airline flight information kept changing, and the flight that originally showed a delay was once on time, but was delayed again after arriving at the airport, so he could only wait at the airport.

Another American woman, Robin, said that the suspension of flights across the United States is unusual in the United States. She was originally going to fly to San Diego, California, but her flight was cancelled. Her first day of vacation has been determined to be ruined. She hopes to leave smoothly tomorrow.

Robin said her plane was preparing to take off, stopped on the runway, and the passengers were sent back to the gate.

The nationwide grounding lasted for nearly 4.5 hours and mainly affected domestic flights in the United States; however, international flights were also affected, and only some flights were allowed to take off.

People in the San Francisco Bay Area said that the EVA Air flight from San Francisco to Taipei at noon EST was affected and delayed for about 2 hours; it is estimated that flights departing in the evening will not be affected.

Zeng Yuping, general manager of China Airlines' San Francisco branch, told CNA that China Airlines' evening flights are expected to take off normally.

Duffy said at the press conference that the FAA is currently promoting an upgrade project of the old air traffic control system, which may be related to the communication outage that caused the suspension of flights across the United States; however, if it is not upgraded, the entire system will bear greater risks. (Editor: Chen Chenggong)