US ground stop live: UK hit by flight delays as thousands stranded despite FAA order being lifted

Transatlantic passengers in the UK faced disruption air traffic control problems brought flights to a standstill across the US.

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) halted all flights nationwide on Friday “due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety” following communications problems at regional air traffic control centres.

US airspace reopened on Friday evening after four hours, but US officials said recovery would be slow, with tens of thousands of passengers stranded and analysts expecting disruption to last for days.

Almost 10,000 flights were cancelled according to flight tracking website Flightradar24.

By Saturday morning the knock-on effect in the UK was limited to delays on some flights on US carriers.

Tim Johnson, consumer director at the UK Civil Aviation Authority, said: “While US flights have resumed, there may be some follow-on disruption as airlines work to re-book affected passengers and get all services back to normal.”

“Anyone due to travel on flights between the UK and USA should check with their airline for the latest information before heading to the airport.”

Manchester Airport not expecting significant delays

A spokesperson for Manchester Airport said earlier on Saturday that there is not expected to be any “significant” delays after flights were grounded across the US for several hours on Friday.

He said in a statement: “We’re due to have three flights to the US today. They’re all in the air and en route here with slight delays – but nothing significant.

The three flights are to New York, Orlando and Atlanta – all operated by Virgin Atlantic. Our advice to passengers is simply to keep an eye out for any updates to their flight times but to plan to travel as usual.”

Passenger details flight being diverted

Ron Schoenbaum told the Associated Press he was traveling from California to Florida when his connecting flight was diverted to Kansas City.

He spent an hour on hold with American Airlines while waiting in line. He was rebooked for a later flight he was warned would likely get delayed.

“I can’t even get a hotel room because I don’t know if the flight’s going to be pushed ’til tomorrow, so I just got to wait at the airport,” he said.

But he didn’t sound too upset by the notion and admitted he was going to check out the famous Kansas City barbecue as he waited.

“It’s not that big of a deal,” he said.

Only second time flights have been grounded across US since September 11 attacks

This is only the second time flights have been grounded across the US since the September 11 terror attacks in 2001.

Flights were halted by the FAA in January 2023 because of a system error.

US homeland security secretary Markwayne Mullin told reporters at the White House that the introduction of some new technology into an old air traffic control system overwhelmed it.

Mr Mullin added “it doesn’t appear” that a cyber attack or rogue artificial intelligence played a role in the incident.

American transportation secretary Sean Duffy said he expected flights around the US to be “back up and operational as we come into the heat of travel” next weekend ahead of the American Thanksgiving holiday, but he also suggested more disruptions might occur.

“We didn’t think we would have this kind of outage. We did,” he said.

“We were able to review what went wrong, and then reboot the system and go. But, you will have more of these.”

UK affected by delays to some US carriers

By Saturday morning the knock-on effect in the UK was limited to delays on some flights on US carriers.

The 9.55am American airlines flight to Charlotte, North Carolina, 11.50am American airlines flight to Dallas, Texas, and 11.55am American airlines flight to Los Angeles, California, were among those showing as cancelled on departure boards at Heathrow airport.

Tim Johnson, consumer director at the UK Civil Aviation Authority, said: “While US flights have resumed, there may be some follow-on disruption as airlines work to re-book affected passengers and get all services back to normal.”

“Anyone due to travel on flights between the UK and USA should check with their airline for the latest information before heading to the airport.

“We know that UK airlines are doing all they can to minimise inconvenience and to make sure their customers are properly looked after.

'I might cry at some point ⁠but not yet'

Though the ground stop has been lifted, the disruption for passengers was far from over.

From Boston to Seattle and New York to Los Angeles, passengers crowded departure halls and airline desks as delays and cancellations mounted and aircraft remained parked at gates.

Thousands of passengers faced being stranded overnight. Edward Kargbo, 50, from West Chester, Pennsylvania, had been scheduled to take a 9pm Ethiopian Airlines flight to Lomé, Togo.

Instead, he planned to spend the night at the airport before a rescheduled flight at 6am on Saturday.

“I have to squat ​the night here,” he said. “I’m stranded.”

Louise Maher, 47, was also caught up in the disruption at Newark after her British Airways flight to London was disrupted by the aviation meltdown.

“I might cry at some point ⁠but not yet,” she said.