Trump breaks silence about FAA nationwide ground stop, blames Biden administration

President Donald Trump blamed the Biden administration for worsening the ageing air traffic control system after a nationwide FAA ground stop disrupted flights on Friday. He called on Congress to approve more funding for modernisation, saying his administration had a plan to upgrade flight control systems.

The ground stop lasted more than four hours, contributing to thousands of cancellations and delays and affecting hundreds of thousands of passengers. The FAA said equipment became unstable after a surge of data flooded its network; contractor work at one site may be connected, but the cause is still under investigation. Congress approved $12.5 billion for the FAA last year, and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has said a broader overhaul will need more funding. Nationwide ground stops are rare: the previous two followed the September 11 attacks and a brief FAA computer outage in January 2023.