Washington: Air travel disruptions across the United States are expected to continue until late Sunday, with thousands of flights cancelled and delayed following a nationwide shutdown caused by technical problems in the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) air traffic control communication system.
FAA chief Bryan Bedford said on Saturday that airline operations were expected to largely return to normal by late Sunday.
He apologised to passengers, assuring them that the aviation system remained stable.
According to FlightAware, more than 6,150 flights were cancelled and over 7,300 delayed across the US by Saturday evening.
The disruption followed Friday’s cancellations of around 9,200 flights and delays to 7,500 others. More than 530 Sunday flights had also been cancelled.
The crisis began after a router malfunction involving FAA contractor L3Harris disrupted radar and communication systems, affecting 17 of the agency’s 22 en route control centres.
The FAA imposed a nationwide ground stop for nearly five hours, the longest since the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said investigators were examining whether the failure resulted from installation errors or faulty equipment. L3Harris is assisting the investigation.
Major airlines, including Delta, United and American, cancelled around 25 per cent of their flights, while JetBlue cancelled nearly 45 per cent.
The disruption has renewed concerns over ageing aviation infrastructure and controller shortages.
Duffy has sought $50 billion to modernise the system, while lawmakers have called for hearings into the incident.
Congress had approved $12.5 billion last year, but only $1 billion has been spent so far, according to Democratic lawmakers Rick Larsen and Andre Carson.
