US flight disruptions: Air India warns of possible operational delays

Air India flights operating to and from the US could face disruptions after a communication outage forced the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to impose a nationwide ground stop on departures. The airline said the disruption had affected departures from airports across the country, potentially impacting its US operations. It has advised passengers to check their flight status before setting out for the airport and plan their travel accordingly. "A nationwide ground stop is currently in effect across the US due to communication outages affecting air traffic operations. As a result, departures from airports across US are impacted, with possible consequential disruptions to Air India flights to and from the US," the airline wrote on X. Air India said its teams were monitoring the situation closely and would provide further updates as they became available. However, the ground stop has now been lifted according to Reuters, but the disruption is likely to continue. The chaos follows the FAA's had halted departures across the country on Friday after a telecommunications outage affected regional air traffic control operations. The restriction brought departures to a standstill at airports across the US, leaving thousands of passengers facing disrupted travel plans. The FAA said the decision was taken "due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety". The outage affected all 22 regional air route traffic control centres, which direct aircraft travelling between airports. Transportation secretary Sean Duffy said FAA technicians were investigating the problem, while the agency maintained that the communication disruption made it unsafe for flights to continue departing normally.

The precise cause of the outage remained under investigation. However, according to an airline source cited by CNN, the FAA informed carriers that a problem with network routers had triggered the disruption. The issue was believed to have started at Chicago Midway International Airport before spreading across the country.

During initial crisis discussions, the FAA was reportedly unable to give a clear explanation of the problem. Different facilities were experiencing the outage in different ways. Homeland security secretary Markwayne Mullin said the problem appeared to be related to telecommunications. Officials had no indication that it was the result of an attack, although authorities were examining the communication systems used by air traffic controllers. The ground stop prevented aircraft from taking off, but flights that were already airborne were allowed to continue to their destinations and land. Officials said they were assessing aircraft still in the air on a case-by-case basis. The nationwide suspension was the first since January 2023, when a malfunction in a key FAA computer system disrupted flight operations. It was also only the second such order since the September 11, 2001, attacks.