Follow-Up: Ground Stop Disruption Winds Down: Over 6,400 Saturday Flights Canceled, More Than 8,000 Delayed; FAA Expects Normal Operations Sunday Night
The disruption from the November 13 nationwide ground stop wound down by Saturday evening. According to flight tracking service FlightAware, as of 9:35 p.m. Eastern Time on Saturday, more than 6,400 flights had been canceled across the United States on Saturday and more than 8,000 delayed; 875 flights had already been canceled in advance for Sunday. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Administrator Bryan Bedford said normal operations are expected to resume on Sunday night.
Across the two days: on Friday, the day of the ground stop, about 9,200 flights were canceled nationwide and about 7,500 delayed, according to Reuters citing FlightAware's full-day tally. Saturday's cancellation count exceeded the estimate Bedford gave that morning, when he projected that as many as 5,000 of the roughly 41,000 flights scheduled for Saturday could be canceled and said the worst is behind us. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Saturday morning that the air traffic control system itself was back at full operations, but that the ripple effects of displaced aircraft and crews would continue through the weekend. The FAA's national operations plan on Saturday afternoon listed no active ground stops or ground delays, and Bedford said the FAA will release its root cause analysis when it is complete.
The ground stop has also put the price tag of air traffic control modernization at the center of the debate, and the figures need to be kept separate: Congress approved $12.5 billion in 2025 to upgrade the air traffic control system; in September, the Transportation Department asked for an additional $30.1 billion on top of that; at the White House press briefing on the night of November 13, Duffy raised the additional request to $50 billion, saying that is what it would take to upgrade the system and prevent a repeat of the nationwide paralysis, and he repeated the $50 billion figure at Saturday's press conference. Democrats in Congress have questioned the request, arguing the administration should first account for how the money already approved has been used.
Related: Follow-Up: Duffy Says a Single Router Flooded the Air Traffic Network in the Nationwide Ground Stop; 17 of 22 Centers Affected, Over 5,000 Saturday Flights Canceled (Source: U.S. Federal Aviation Administration)
Source: U.S. Federal Aviation Administration
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于华盛顿的美国联邦航空管理局总部威尔伯·莱特大楼。MBisanz 摄，CC BY-SA 3.0，经 Wikimedia Commons，本图已裁为 16:9。 / Photo: The Federal Aviation Administration headquarters, the Wilbur Wright Building, in Washington. Photo by MBisanz, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; cropped to 16:9.
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