The FAA nationwide ground stop that halted every departing flight in the United States on Friday, November 13, 2026, has been lifted. The agency ordered the stop citing “extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety.” Departures are now resuming, but heavy delays and cancellations are expected to continue into the weekend.
Latest update (5:50 p.m. PT): The FAA lifted the nationwide ground stop at around 8:15 p.m. ET on Friday, about four hours and 20 minutes after it took effect. Departures are resuming gradually. Expect widespread delays and cancellations to continue late Friday and into Saturday as airlines reposition aircraft and crews. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said there is no indication the outage was a cyberattack or other attack.
What happened
The ground stop took effect at 3:54 p.m. Eastern Time, after the FAA had already halted traffic in Chicago earlier in the afternoon. According to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, the order followed a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers — the regional facilities that manage flights traveling across the country. The FAA’s advisory also points to an equipment outage and frequency problems across the national airspace system.
Flights already in the air are not being ordered to land and may continue to their destinations. Inbound international flights are generally being handled on a case-by-case basis, except for U.S.-bound departures from Europe, which have been suspended at the FAA’s request for flights departing between 5 p.m. and midnight ET Friday. Flights already in the air are not being told to turn back.
The FAA described the problem as a temporary telecommunications outage. Technicians are still investigating, and the agency has not yet identified the root cause. As of 8 p.m. ET, FlightAware counted more than 10,000 delayed flights and about 5,000 cancellations in the United States.
How long did the FAA nationwide ground stop last?
The ground stop took effect at 3:54 p.m. ET and was lifted at around 8:15 p.m. ET, a total of about four hours and 20 minutes — well before the advisory window that had run through 11:30 p.m. ET. Departures are now resuming, but recovery will take time, so delays and cancellations will continue late Friday and into Saturday.
Nationwide ground stops of this scale are extremely rare. The last one was in January 2023, when a pilot notification system outage halted departures for several hours. Before that, the last full nationwide ground stop came after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
What to do if you are flying today or tomorrow
- Check your flight in the airline’s app before leaving for the airport. A ground stop is not the same as a cancellation — your flight may depart late rather than not at all.
- Do not cancel and rebook on your own first. If the airline cancels your flight, you are entitled to a refund if you choose not to travel, and rebooking options are usually better inside the app once the airline issues a waiver.
- Airline waivers are now live. Delta, United, Alaska, Hawaiian and Southwest have issued flexible rebooking waivers for November 13–14 flights — check your airline’s app for your waiver’s exact terms and rebook there rather than at the airport.
- If you are connecting, protect the connection. Long ground stops break connections in waves; rebooking early through the app beats standing in an airport line.
- If you booked with points, check before you change anything. Award tickets follow the operating airline’s disruption policies, and changes are usually free during a waiver window.
Delta and United have issued nationwide travel waivers for flights on November 13-14. Delta lets eligible travelers rebook for travel through November 21 with the fare difference waived in the same cabin. United lets eligible travelers reschedule onto a United flight departing through November 20, between the same cities and in the same cabin, with change fees and fare differences waived.
The ground stop is over. This post will be updated only if the FAA releases a final cause or other major new information.
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