Flight Disruptions Continue After Ground Stop

New Delhi, November 15: Effects of a nationwide ground stop on air travel Friday evening have rippled through the weekend, stranding thousands of passengers and causing widespread delays. Airlines canceled thousands of flights, and airports struggled to recover.

The number of flights facing disruption on Sunday was lower than the day before, according to FlightAware, a flight tracking service. However, tens of thousands of passengers still faced snarls. As of 8:30 a.m. Eastern, more than 3,000 flights scheduled for Sunday were either delayed or canceled, while over 15,000 were affected on Saturday.

The air traffic control system, which faced a faulty upgrade that caused communications failures leading to the ground stop, is expected to be back to normal by Sunday night, according to Bryan Bedford, who leads the Federal Aviation Administration. However, flight schedules could take several days to return to normal.

Federal officials are still trying to determine who is at fault and have called for congressional funding to prevent similar failures. There is currently no evidence that the problem was caused by a cyberattack, officials have stated.