The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration lifted a countrywide ground stop after communications issues, but Canadians were warned to expect cancellations and delays.
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A countrywide grounding of aircraft in the United States was lifted about five hours after it was ordered on Friday afternoon, but many Canadians saw their travel plans disrupted before flights resumed.
The FAA issued a ground stop order at about 4 p.m. eastern time, citing communications issues affecting nearly two dozen air traffic control centres that direct planes between airports across the country.
Airports across Canada suspended flights to and from the United States. Air Canada said it was cancelling the rest of its U.S.-bound flights for Friday, while the Calgary Airport Authority said that after the order was lifted, all flights bound for the “lower 48 states” were cancelled out of YYC for Nov. 13 and some delays were still possible on other routes.
In Vancouver, the Vancouver Airport Authority said cancellations and delays were expected to continue, particularly for flights to the continental United States and Mexico, as airlines worked to restore their networks.
Nav Canada said it would continue ensuring air traffic remains safe and efficient in Canadian airspace, adding that some delays may continue while operations return to normal and backlogs are cleared.
At Toronto Pearson International Airport, arriving and departing U.S. flights continued to experience disruptions and cancellations.
The communications failure prompted comments from U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who told reporters at the White House that “there was never any lives at risk” and that “there was no flights at risk,” saying the FAA acted “out of an abundance of caution.”
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said there was no guarantee the exact scenario would not happen again, and he called on Congress to authorize billions in spending to modernize federal aviation safety.
The ground stop was the first countrywide shutdown in the United States since January 2023, when a key FAA computer system malfunctioned. The last such shutdown before 2023 followed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
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