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

The U.S. air travel schedule should return to normal by the end of Sunday, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford declared Saturday that "the worst is behind us" after the U.S. saw its longest nationwide ground stop in 25 years this weekend.

Transportation Sec. Sean Duffy says the situation arose when contractor L3Harris Technologies Inc. was replacing old copper wiring in the air traffic control system with new fiber wiring, causing a system overload.

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The work led to "intermittent" communications and radar gaps, prompting the government to shut down air traffic for more than four hours. Officials were investigating whether contractor "incompetence" or a faulty router was the cause," he said.

"Our contractor didn’t meet the moment or the equipment didn’t meet the moment," Duffy said.

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The nationwide stop was the first since January 2023 , when a key FAA computer system that sends notices to pilots malfunctioned, and the second since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

The FAA issued the ground stop order on Friday afternoon.

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The ground stop was lifted at 8:15 p.m. ET Friday, but the ripple effect felt by airline crews and passengers lasted with residual delays continuing to affect airport operations, ultimately impacting some 15,000 flights Friday and Saturday.

"You will continue to see some delays and cancellations as carriers reschedule flights and reposition aircraft/crews where they are needed most," Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said in a post on X this weekend.

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Travelers should continue to check their flight status directly with their airlines for real-time updates, he noted.

"Check those, be in touch with your airline, check their websites, look at online monitoring tools," Gary Leff, a Texas-based travel industry expert and author of the blog "View From the Wing," told Fox News Digital.

Fox News' Sadie Chafe and The Associated Press contributed to this report.