Los Angeles LAX brought to standstill. Credit: Rosemarie Mosteller – Shutterstock
Travellers flying between Europe and the United States on Saturday, 14 November, should check their flight status before leaving for the airport. US departures began to resume on Friday after the Federal Aviation Administration lifted a nationwide ground stop, but US Transport Secretary Sean Duffy warned that schedules would take time to recover. Passengers connecting through a US airport should check both legs of their journey.
The FAA halted departures across the United States on Friday, 13 November, after communications problems affected several regional air traffic control centres. The stop lasted more than four hours. Hundreds of flights were diverted, and more than 11,000 US flights were delayed or cancelled on Friday, according to FlightAware figures reported by The Guardian.
The disruption reached Europe on Friday night. British Airways cancelled its 10.30pm flight from Heathrow to New York. Passengers travelling between Spain and the United States should check directly with their airline for the latest departure time and any changes to onward connections.
Duffy attributed the outage to an overload in ageing communications equipment. Friday’s halt was the first nationwide ground stop since January 2023, when a separate FAA computer system failure led the agency to pause departures across the country.
The @FAAnews issued a nationwide ground stop for all U.S. airports following a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers. FAA technicians are investigating the issue. We will provide immediate updates as we have them.
— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) November 13, 2026
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