The Federal Aviation Administration grounded flights across the United States for nearly two hours Wednesday morning after a key computer system failed. There were 2,512 flights delayed in the U.S. and 275 cancellations as of 8 a.m. Eastern time, according to data from airline traffic tracker FlightAware. Airlines stocks showed only a mild response.
Shortly after 7 a.m. ET, the FAA halted all domestic departures until 9 a.m. ET. It had to restore the Notice To Air Missions System (NOTAMS) that went offline. NOTAMS provides critical safety information to pilots, including broken equipment, flight restrictions and real-time hazards.
The FAA lifted the ground stop at 8:50 a.m. and announced normal air traffic operations are gradually resuming across the country.
Operations across the National Airspace System were affected beginning Tuesday night, the agency reported. The delays allowed the FAA to "validate the integrity of flight and safety information," it tweeted early Wednesday.
President Joe Biden directed the Department of Transportation to conduct an investigation into the cause. As of early Wednesday, there was no evidence of a cyberattack, according to U.S. Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
Airlines Stocks Steady After FAA Move
The NOTAMS failure is the latest operational fiasco for American air travel. Severe winter storms canceled thousands of flights across the U.S. during the holidays in late December. Southwest Airlines was hardest hit by that industry calamity. It suffered a massive operational meltdown after its outdated scheduling system failed.
Airline stocks were relatively unchanged premarket Wednesday despite the outage. American Airlines stock, United Airlines stock and Delta Air Lines stock all edged down less than 1% before market open. LUV stock dropped 1.7%.
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