A system failure at the Federal Aviation Administration disrupted flights across the country early Wednesday morning, causing thousands of flight delays and prompting calls for the agency to modernize its aging digital infrastructure.
After the overnight failure of a pilot notification system, the FAA put in place a nationwide ground stop that kept many flights from departing during the early morning rush.
The ground stop caused traffic congestion at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport — the world’s busiest — prompting the agency to rush to resume flights from Atlanta.
Still, Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines had to cancel about 150 flights, and delayed flights at some airports throughout Wednesday to prevent congestion and keep enough gate space available.
“Delta will continue to work with the FAA on strategic delay programs at certain airports throughout the day,” the airline said. “We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience. Delta remains connected with our partners at the FAA at all levels as we work to mitigate impact.”
Credit: John Spink / John.Spink@ajc.com
Credit: John Spink / John.Spink@ajc.com
At 8:15 a.m., the FAA said it was resuming departures at Hartsfield-Jackson and Newark Liberty International Airport “due to traffic congestion in those areas.”
By 9 a.m., the nationwide ground stop was lifted for normal air traffic operations to gradually resume across the country, though delays and other issues were likely to be felt throughout the day as airlines scrambled to return to normal service.
“We continue to look into the cause of the initial problem,” the FAA said.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Twitter that President Joe Biden had been briefed by U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on the FAA system outage.
“There is no evidence of a cyberattack at this point, but the President directed DOT to conduct a full investigation into the causes,” according to Jean-Pierre.
Buttigieg said on Twitter he has ordered a process “to determine root causes and recommend next steps.”
Buttigieg has been vocal about pushing Southwest Airlines to refund and compensate passengers who were affected by the carrier’s mass cancellations that stranded hundreds of thousands of travelers over the holidays.
The Southwest meltdown just two weeks ago will cost the airline $725 million to $825 million, including lost revenue, compensation to customers and reimbursement for expenses incurred when their trips were disrupted.
Airline Passenger Experience Association CEO Joe Leader said the U.S. government should similarly compensate travelers affected by the air traffic control failure.
“The U.S. government needs to rise to the same level of accountability to passengers as the airlines,” Leader said. “Air traffic control failures happen too often. This national failure highlights a need for the U.S. government to practice what they preach: protect customers when it’s your fault within your control.”
The outage affected the FAA’s Notice to Air Missions system, which is responsible for notifying pilots of flight conditions and hazards. The FAA said pilots check the NOTAM system before they fly for alerts about closed runways, equipment outages and other potential hazards. Flights already in the sky continued to operate safely while the NOTAM system was down.
Even after flights resumed, the early-morning disruption caused ripple effects.
The flight delays caused aircraft to sit at gates, leaving less space for arriving planes to park. As a result, Delta requested that flights bound for Atlanta that had not yet departed be held on the ground until 10 a.m. Wednesday.
Delays of the first flights of the day also mean airplanes, crews and connecting passengers arrive late for their next flights, which can cause more delays throughout the day.
Credit: john spink
Credit: john spink
The outage prompted airlines and airports to advise travelers to check their flight status Wednesday.
FlightAware.com showed more than 60 flights at Hartsfield-Jackson had been canceled Wednesday morning. More than 830 flights to or from Atlanta were delayed, or more than one-third of total flights.
Across the country, more than 10,000 flights were delayed, and more than 1,300 flights canceled for Wednesday, according to FlightAware.
Delta issued a waiver for all of its flights Wednesday to allow customers some flexibility to change their flights without having to pay a fee or fare difference.
Dallas-based Southwest Airlines, the second-largest carrier at Hartsfield-Jackson, said it was also monitoring the issue. Southwest, which recovered earlier this month from its own operational meltdown, had the most cancellations Wednesday morning among U.S. airlines, with more than 350 flights canceled.
Credit: john spink
Credit: john spink
U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., who chairs the Senate committee on commerce, science and transportation, said in a written statement after the FAA outage: “The public needs a resilient air transportation system.”
“As the Committee prepares for FAA reauthorization legislation, we will be looking into what caused this outage and how redundancy plays a role in preventing future outages,” she said.
U.S. House transportation committee chairman Sam Graves, R-Mo., said in a written statement that the ground stop “highlights a huge vulnerability in our air transportation system” and underscores how much the FAA needs skilled leaders after losing experienced employees over the past several years.
He said he and other members of Congress seek to know what went wrong. “And just as DOT expected Southwest to make passengers whole after their leadership failures, I expect a prompt update on DOT’s efforts to do right by the passengers it has wronged,” Graves added.
The U.S. Travel Association CEO Geoff Freeman called on federal policymakers to modernize air travel infrastructure and said in a written statement that the FAA system failure “is a clear sign that America’s transportation network desperately needs significant upgrades.”
