US nationwide flight halt delays departures from Incheon Airport

Flights departing South Korea's Incheon International Airport for major US cities were delayed by about two hours Saturday following a nationwide suspension of flight operations in the United States over air traffic control communications problems.

According to Incheon International Airport Corp., flights bound for New York, Atlanta and Boston were experiencing delays of approximately two hours as of 10 a.m. Official figures on the number of delayed flights have yet to be released.

A total of 32 passenger flights and 52 flights including cargo services were scheduled to depart Incheon for the United States on Saturday.

"Nine flights are currently undergoing check-in procedures at Terminal 2," an airport official said, adding that further delays were likely throughout the morning.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said airlines were delaying US-bound departures following a request from American authorities.

"Airlines are implementing delays following a request to suspend departures for US-bound flights due to problems with the US air traffic control system. We are closely monitoring the situation," a ministry official said.

The disruptions followed an announcement by the US Federal Aviation Administration on Friday that it had ordered a nationwide ground stop due to communications problems affecting air traffic control operations.

According to US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, the outage affected 22 regional air traffic control centers responsible for directing aircraft between airports nationwide.

US Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin ruled out any immediate indication of malicious activity, describing the disruption as a telecommunications outage rather than a security threat.

The nationwide ground stop was the first since January 2023, when a key FAA computer system malfunctioned, and only the second since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, news reports said.