FAA Lifts Nationwide Ground Stop as Duffy Demands $50 Billion to Fix “Incredibly Old” Air Traffic System

Air travel across the United States came to a sudden halt Friday when the Federal Aviation Administration ordered a rare nationwide ground stop. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy then called on Congress to approve $50 billion to rebuild the nation’s aging air traffic control system.

The FAA issued the ground stop around 4 p.m. ET “due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety,” after communication problems hit multiple Air Route Traffic Control Centers. Most American airports were brought to a standstill. Some flights still took off over the ocean and in Alaska and Hawaii.

At a White House briefing Friday night, Duffy announced that the ground stop had been lifted at 8:15 p.m. ET, roughly four and a half hours after it began.

Duffy said experts had seen “instability for our radar and our communications” in control centers across the country. That prompted officials to get planes on the ground immediately. He said “inconsistency” in data coming from routers in the air traffic control system triggered the decision, and he pointed to outdated routers, switches and copper lines dating back to the 1980s.

“What we have is an incredibly old air traffic control system,” Duffy said.

He then put the issue to lawmakers directly, calling it an emergency.

“This is bipartisan. This is American. I want $50 billion,” Duffy said. He noted that President Trump had previously asked for $30 billion.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin joined Duffy in calling for a full rebuild. “It has to be a complete overhaul of the system, which we estimate to be about $50 billion,” Mullin said.

Earlier in the day, Mullin told Americans the disruption was not an act of terrorism. “This isn’t another 9/11. This is a telecommunication outage,” he said.

The disruption caused widespread chaos for travelers. At one point more than 10,000 flights had been delayed, and thousands were canceled.

Airlines began restarting operations once the stop was lifted. United Airlines said it was resuming operations, including some flights that had been planned for Friday night. Southwest Airlines also said it was resuming some flights.

Duffy warned that the trouble was not over for passengers.

“It’s going to take us some time to unwind what’s happened this afternoon,” he said.

Officials said cancellations and significant delays would continue as airlines work to get planes and crews back where they need to be.