U.S. airspace is open again. The Federal Aviation Administration lifted Friday’s nationwide ground stop at 8:15 p.m. Eastern after about four hours, and Saturday has been the long, ugly recovery day that always follows one. Here is what federal officials said Saturday morning about what broke, where the numbers stand, when schedules should be normal, and what each airline is offering passengers who got caught in it.
If you want the view from inside the mess, we wrote two first-person posts: Part 1 from a United plane stuck on the tarmac at Houston IAH, and Part 2 on the canceled morning flight, the oversold hotel and how the United app got us home via O’Hare.
The timeline
| Time (ET), Friday Nov. 13 | What happened |
|---|---|
| 3:36 p.m. | Trouble begins on the FAA’s telecommunications network; routers become overloaded and start returning inconsistent data (Upgraded Points) |
| 3:54 p.m. | FAA Command Center orders a nationwide ground stop for all departing flights, citing “extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety.” About 4,042 flights were airborne and bound for U.S. airports at that moment (Flightradar24) |
| ~6 p.m. | FAA says the stop remains in effect but flights may depart case by case as en route centers recover (ABC7) |
| 8:15 p.m. | Ground stop lifted after systems were “thoroughly tested.” Duffy warns the restart will be slow and depends on crew availability (CBS News, Al Jazeera) |
| Saturday a.m. | DOT and FAA press briefing in Washington; Duffy names contractor L3Harris; FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford says normal schedules by end of Sunday (CNN, WBAL) |
It was the longest nationwide ground stop in 25 years and only the second since September 11, 2001; the other was the January 2023 NOTAM database failure, which lasted a couple of hours on a Wednesday morning (The Hill, WBAL). This one landed at 4 p.m. on a Friday, two weeks before Thanksgiving.
What caused it, according to the DOT
Friday night, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s explanation was that routers on the air traffic control network got overloaded with data and began returning inconsistent readings, and that the FAA shut things down out of caution rather than fly on data controllers could not trust (FOX LA). The FAA did not lose all telecom or radar capability; it lost confidence in it (NBC Philadelphia).
Saturday morning he got specific. The outage began while contractor L3Harris Technologies, which owns and operates the FAA’s legacy telecom network, was switching telecommunications lines from copper wire to fiber at a remote FAA site. A router being replaced started flooding other routers in the system with data. Officials have not yet determined whether the cause was contractor error or faulty equipment, and Duffy said the department would “hold people accountable” (AP via Yahoo News, CNN). He also said he is, for now, “stuck” with L3Harris, and that the upgrades that went wrong were necessary ones (CNN).
FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford called it an equipment error and said there was “zero evidence” of anything nefarious (ABC7). Two other theories that circulated Friday were ruled out by officials: Microsoft said it saw no connection to its own outage earlier in the week, and Duffy said the FAA’s newly expanded SMART traffic-planning tool is not connected to the core systems controllers use to track aircraft (Upgraded Points). Some air traffic controllers told CNN they did not buy the router explanation, so expect the account to be tested as the investigation continues (CNN).
The damage
| Measure | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Flights canceled Friday | 9,159 (second-worst day of 2026 after the Jan. 25 snowstorm’s 11,607) | FlightAware via CBS News |
| Flights delayed Friday | 7,190 | Same |
| Friday cancellations by airline | American 1,239 · Southwest 1,167 · Delta 1,162 · United 1,137 | AP via Yahoo News |
| Flights canceled Saturday (as of mid-morning) | 3,374, with another 1,008 delayed | FlightAware via ABC7 |
| Saturday cancellations expected | 4,000 to 5,000 of ~41,000 scheduled | Bedford, via CNN |
| Two-day total | More than 12,500 canceled; 15,000+ affected | ABC7, Fox News |
Bedford put the scale in context: about 50,000 flights were scheduled Friday, roughly 30,000 had already operated or were in the air when the stop hit, and the remaining 20,000 had to be absorbed, flown or canceled across the four-hour stop and the hours after (CNN). Figures above are snapshots and will have moved by the time you read this.
When it gets back to normal
Bedford said the schedule should be back to normal by the end of Sunday, with delays and cancellations continuing through Saturday, and promised the “worst is behind us” (WBAL). Duffy said Friday night he expects the system to catch up well before the Thanksgiving rush (NBC Philadelphia). The practical constraint is not the airspace; it is that every aircraft and crew spent the night in the wrong city, and airlines are rebuilding pilot and flight attendant schedules from scratch (CNN).
What each airline is offering
The waivers are not identical, and the differences matter. Always confirm on the airline’s own alert page before you rebook; these are as reported Saturday.
| Airline | Change fee | Fare difference | Scope, as reported |
|---|---|---|---|
| United | Waived | Waived | Tickets bought by Nov. 12 for travel Nov. 13–14; rebook same cabin and cities by Nov. 20 |
| Delta | Waived | Waived | Travel Nov. 13–14, rebooked for travel on or before Nov. 21 |
| Southwest | Waived | Waived | Resuming limited schedule based on crew location; check your flight |
| American | Waived | Still applies | 21 airports including ATL, ORD, DFW, JFK, LGA; changes required by Saturday; refunds offered |
| Alaska, Frontier, JetBlue | Waivers posted | Varies | Check the carrier’s travel alert page |
Sources for the table: The Hill, Upgraded Points, AP via Yahoo News, CNN. The American Airlines fare-difference clause is the one to watch: on a sold-out weekend, “fee waived, fare difference applies” can mean paying hundreds of dollars for the seat you are moved into.
Your rights, regardless of airline
- Canceled flight, and you choose not to travel: full refund. Under Department of Transportation rules you are entitled to a refund to your original form of payment, and you do not have to accept a voucher (Fox News). This applies even though the cause was the FAA, not the airline.
- Hotels and meals: not owed, but ask. An air traffic control outage is outside the airline’s control, so the hotel and meal commitments carriers make for controllable delays generally do not apply. Agents still have discretion.
- Credit card trip-delay coverage is the real backstop. If you paid with a premium travel card such as the Chase Sapphire Reserve, reasonable hotel, meal and ground transportation costs during a qualifying delay are typically reimbursable up to a per-ticket cap. Read your guide to benefits for the trigger (commonly six hours or an overnight) and keep every receipt.
- Rebook in the app, and search alternate airports yourself. Automatic rebooking keeps you on your ticketed route. If your destination is sold out through Sunday, a nearby airport may have a seat today. It did for us.
What happens next
Duffy has spent most of 2026 arguing that the air traffic control system runs on decades-old analog equipment and needs a full rebuild, and Friday handed him the most severe example yet (NBC Philadelphia). He warned Friday night that there will be more of these until the system is upgraded (ABC7). Expect congressional hearings, pressure on L3Harris, and a renewed push for modernization funding. For travelers, the lesson is older than the routers: the system has almost no slack, and the recovery from any outage lasts longer than the outage itself.
We will update this post as the airlines publish final cancellation counts and as the DOT releases more on the cause.
Related on Points Capital: Grounded: Inside the FAA’s Nationwide Stop, From an Economy Plus Seat at Houston IAH
Sources
- CNN live updates, Nov. 14: Saturday DOT/FAA briefing
- AP via Yahoo News: L3Harris, airline cancellation counts, waivers
- CBS News: ground stop lifted, Friday totals
- WBAL: Bedford on normal schedules by Sunday
- ABC7 live updates
- Flightradar24: timeline and airborne count
- Upgraded Points: waiver details, SMART and Microsoft
- The Hill: airline waiver comparison
- FOX LA: Duffy’s Friday remarks
- NBC Philadelphia
- Fox News live updates: DOT refund rule
Disclosure: Points Capital may earn a bonus if you are approved for a card through a referral link in this article. We only recommend cards we hold ourselves.
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