FAA says air travel should be back to normal Sunday after nationwide ground stop

The Federal Aviation Administration expects US air travel to return to normal by the end of Sunday, after a nationwide ground stop caused widespread disruption. The incident matters because it was the longest such stoppage in 25 years and affected thousands of flights.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the disruption followed work by contractor L3Harris Technologies to replace copper wiring with fibre in the air traffic control system. Communications and radar gaps led officials to halt air traffic for more than four hours on Friday; the stop was lifted at 8.15pm ET, but delays and cancellations continued as airlines repositioned aircraft and crews. Around 15,000 flights were affected across Friday and Saturday, and officials were investigating whether contractor performance or a faulty router caused the problem.