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Flight schedules in the United States are not expected to return to normal until late Sunday, Nov. 15, AnewZ reports. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) chief Bryan Bedford said the aviation system was gradually recovering after flights were halted nationwide. Officials said the problem was linked to a fault that occurred during routine maintenance.
According to aviation data site FlightAware, more than 6,400 U.S. flights had been canceled and more than 8,000 delayed as of 9:35 p.m. ET on Saturday (2:35 a.m. GMT on Nov. 15). About 9,200 flights were canceled and 7,500 delayed on Friday after the FAA ordered a nationwide halt because of failures in the air traffic communications system. FlightAware said 875 flights scheduled for Sunday had already been canceled.
Bedford said on Saturday that airlines expected operations to be largely back to normal by late Sunday and apologized for the disruption. He said the system was stable.
The FAA ordered a nationwide flight halt on Friday, Nov. 13. The decision grounded almost all departing flights for about five hours. It was the longest nationwide suspension of air traffic in the United States since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and one of the country’s most severe aviation disruptions.
The White House held an emergency meeting in the Situation Room on Friday over the problem, while federal agencies began investigating whether it was a cyberattack. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on Saturday that the fault had been linked to the installation of at least one new router by FAA contractor “L3Harris” at a remote facility.
“We are investigating whether there was negligence — whether a user or an ‘L3Harris’ installer made a mistake, or whether a faulty router was installed. We have not yet determined what caused the failure,” Duffy said at a news conference.
Failure linked to two routers
The Professional Aviation Safety Specialists union, which represents FAA safety employees, said the problem was limited to two routers updated on Friday. An unnamed official told Reuters the routers were believed to be located in Arkansas and Texas.
An FAA official said a safety assessment had been conducted before the work. The union said technicians who are PASS members were not involved in the updates that led to the flight halt.
“L3Harris” said it was taking the matter seriously and supporting the FAA’s investigation. The company’s shares fell about 4% in after-hours trading on Friday.
Duffy said the problem began Friday afternoon when radar and communications systems at air traffic control centers started operating erratically. Officials said the router failure overloaded data flows to other communications centers.
“Every four to five seconds, there were more than 1,000 connection attempts. That created a problem with our communications with aircraft, as well as some disruptions to the radar system,” Duffy added.
The problem affected communications at 17 of the FAA’s 22 en route air traffic control centers. These centers manage aircraft during the cruise phase of flights. Bedford said the FAA ordered the halt because of the risk that a center could lose communications entirely. He said no center stopped operating and communications were never completely lost.
The FAA said it was conducting further tests with “L3Harris” to determine whether there were additional risks.
“Delta Air Lines,” “United Airlines” and “American Airlines” canceled about 25% of their flights on Saturday. “JetBlue” did not operate about 45% of its flights. Airlines offered passengers options to change their tickets to later dates without additional fees.
Although the FAA lifted the flight-halt order on Friday evening, tens of thousands of passengers remained stranded at airports. Airlines worked to reposition crews and other staff to resume flights. Some college football teams were also stranded away from home on Friday ahead of games scheduled for Saturday.
The image shows a departures board listing canceled and delayed flights at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, on Nov. 14, 2026, after the nationwide flight-halt order was lifted.
More funding sought to upgrade air traffic control system
Friday’s disruption was the latest and most serious sign of the challenges facing the U.S. air traffic control system, which is dealing with outdated technology and equipment, communications problems and a shortage of several thousand controllers.
Duffy called on Friday for $50 billion in funding to upgrade air traffic control systems, more than the $30 billion he had previously sought. Congress allocated $12.5 billion last year.
House Speaker Mike Johnson told “Fox News” on Saturday that he supported allocating more funding for the air traffic control system this year. Republicans will control Congress until next year. Democrats will take control of Congress next year after gaining seats in the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
Democratic lawmakers Rick Larsen and Andre Carson, who are expected to lead the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and its aviation subcommittee next year, issued a joint statement on Saturday saying their committees would “hold the administration accountable for what happened and ensure this chaos does not happen again.”
Larsen and Carson said the Transportation Department had awarded contracts worth $4.3 billion after Congress allocated $12.5 billion last year, but had spent only $1 billion.
