FAA back at "full operations" after Friday outage, Transportation Sec. says
Summary
FAA systems returned to full operations Saturday after a telecommunications outage prompted a nationwide ground stop Friday evening. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the cause remains under investigation and renewed his request for $50 billion to upgrade aging air traffic control systems; officials said flight disruptions could continue through Sunday.Key Facts
- A contractor was performing routine work to replace an old copper telecommunications line with fiber-optic cable and install a new router when the outage occurred.
- Officials said they have not determined whether contractor error or faulty equipment caused the outage.
- FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said as many as 5,000 flight cancellations could continue Saturday, with airlines expecting normal operations by Sunday evening.
- As of 11:30 a.m. Eastern on Saturday, FlightAware counted more than 4,600 canceled flights and more than 13,000 delayed flights.
- The FAA ordered the ground stop as a precaution to protect passengers and flight crews.
- Bedford said officials had no evidence that a cyberattack or an artificial intelligence issue caused the outage.
- Duffy raised his request for air traffic control and airport upgrades to $50 billion, after Congress allocated $12.5 billion for upgrades in July 2025.
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