FAA suspends all United States flight departures due to air traffic control failure

The Federal Aviation Administration suspended all United States flight departures on November 13, 2026, following a communications failure in air traffic control systems. This suspension lasted for more than four hours and was lifted after 22:30 on Friday, November 13, 2026. The outage affected approximately 20,000 flights on Friday, resulting in 12,000 cancellations.

Causes of the system failure

United States Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy stated the system failure was caused by data overload on outdated routers and switches. Secretary Duffy said, "The system is incredibly old; routers were overloaded with data, causing the system to crash and provide inconsistent data."

While the incident caused significant disruption, officials clarified the nature of the failure. United States Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin stated there was no evidence of a cyberattack or threat to national security. Secretary Mullin said, "There was no cyberattack and the public was never in danger."

The disruption was not related to a new artificial intelligence system implemented by the Federal Aviation Administration. Furthermore, the incident was not linked to a Microsoft service outage or a cyberattack.

Impact on travelers and flights

The scale of the disruption was significant for the United States airspace, which is the most heavily trafficked in the world. On Friday, November 13, 2026, approximately 3,100 aircraft were in the air during the suspension. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey activated an operations center to assist stranded passengers at airports during the crisis.

The impact continued into Saturday, November 14, 2026. FlightAware reported that 3,800 flights were canceled and 2,100 flights were delayed on Saturday morning. Cirium reported that approximately 1.5 million people were affected by these cancellations and delays. While total cancellations for Saturday vary between 4,000 and 6,000, the Federal Aviation Administration manages an average of over 45,000 daily flights and serves approximately 2.9 million airline passengers.

Specific regional impacts were noted at major hubs. On Friday, 800 flights were canceled or delayed at John F. Kennedy International Airport, LaGuardia Airport, and Stewart International Airport. On Saturday, 300 services were canceled or delayed at John F. Kennedy International Airport, and 200 services were canceled or delayed at LaGuardia Airport.

Ongoing travel warnings

New York Governor Kathy Hochul warned of continued delays and cancellations at state airports through the weekend. Travelers should prepare for ongoing disruptions as the aviation system recovers from the Friday outage. On Saturday, a total of 41,000 flights were scheduled to operate across the country.

Glossary

• United States Secretary of Transportation — The United States Secretary of Transportation is a government office. This role has been held by individuals such as Norman Mineta.
• United States Secretary of Homeland Security — The United States Secretary of Homeland Security is a government office. Jeh Johnson served as the first African-American in this role.
• Port Authority of New York and New Jersey — The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is an organization that can activate an operations center to assist passengers at airports.