A ground stop keeps flights at the gate until the FAA lets them go
A ground stop is an FAA order that holds flights bound for an airport or region on the ground at their departure airports. 1 Right now no ground stop is listed anywhere in the US (checked at 12:30am ET on Sunday 15 November 2026). 2
The nationwide stop on 13 November 2026 lasted 4 hours 21 minutes, the second since 2001. Below: what a stop means for your fare, the full record of that day, and every large non-weather disruption since 2022.
Is there a nationwide ground stop right now?
Checked at 12:30am ET on Sunday 15 November 2026 from the FAA's public status feed. 2 This page is rebuilt from that feed; for a reading taken this minute, open the FAA National Airspace System status page.
Delay programmes and notices listed
- No ground stops, ground delay programmes or delay notices at any airport.
Closures listed for airline flights
- DAL: Closure, because of a notice closing the airport (reopens Nov 15 at 12:00 UTC).
A ground stop holds every listed departure; a ground delay programme gives each flight a slot
The FAA calls ground stops one of its most restrictive measures. They override every other traffic measure and normally come with little or no warning. 1
| Measure | What happens to your flight | How long | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ground stop | Flights meeting the criteria (often every departure to one airport) stay at the gate until the FAA releases them. | A local stop is for conditions expected to last no more than 30 minutes. A national stop is announced with an expected update time and the probability of extension. | 1 |
| Ground delay programme | Flights still leave, each at an assigned departure time that fits an arrival slot at the busy airport. | Set for the period demand exceeds capacity. | 3 |
| Airport closure | No flights in or out while the closure notice is in force. The FAA feed lists the reopening time. | Shown in each notice. | 2 |
Why the FAA calls one: severely reduced capacity such as weather below landing minimums, a runway closed for snow or an accident; to avoid long airborne holding; when airspace or an airport nears gridlock; when a facility cannot provide air traffic services; and when severe weather or a catastrophic event closes the routes. 1
A ground stop gets you your fare back and little else
If the airline cancels your flight, or delays it by 3 hours or more on a domestic trip or 6 hours or more internationally, and you choose not to fly, US rules give you a full cash refund of the fare, taxes and bag or seat fees. 4 The rule makes no exception for the cause, so an FAA failure still counts.
The refund is due automatically when you turn down the new flight or a voucher. Airlines must pay within 7 business days for card purchases and 20 calendar days for other payments. 4
Hotels and meals are a different story. Airline promises cover disruptions the airline caused; American's own plan says that when the cause is outside its control, the customer pays for hotel, meals and incidentals. 5 No US airline's page offered hotels or meals after the 13 November stop. 6
That gap is set to widen. A DOT rule taking effect on 1 February 2027 stops airlines reporting an unexpected government system failure as a cause within their control. 7
Fee waivers help if you still want to travel. 15 of the 62 airlines in the dataset posted one for this event, mostly with short rebooking windows. 6
Travel insurance pays only once its waiting period passes. Of the US delay products that state a waiting period, 10 of 14 start at 5 hours or more. The stop ran 4 hours 21 minutes. 8
On 13 November 2026 the whole US stopped departures for 4 hours 21 minutes
A contractor was switching FAA lines from copper to fibre when a router began flooding the telecommunications network, and 17 of 22 en route centres were affected. The FAA says the root cause is still unconfirmed. 14 15 16
It ran 4 hours 21 minutes against about 90 minutes for the January 2023 NOTAM outage, and its Friday count is the largest single-day cancellation total caused by the FAA in the events list. 17
Cancellation counts by snapshot
Each bar is one tracker count at the time shown. Counts differ because trackers took them at different times; the Friday figure kept rising after the stop lifted.
Timeline in US Eastern time
| When (ET) | What happened | Source status | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thu 12 Nov | Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and the White House budget director ask Congress for US$30.1 billion for air traffic control. | Reported elsewhere | 31 |
| Fri about 3:00pm | Contractor work switching copper lines to fibre is under way at a remote FAA site. | Not confirmed | 28 |
| Fri 3:36pm | Telecom trouble starts at control centres, according to Duffy. | Reported elsewhere | 29 |
| Fri 3:53pm | The FAA command centre logs the start of the event. | Checked at source | 9 |
| Fri 3:54pm | The FAA orders a ground stop at every US airport, planned to run until 11pm ET. | Checked at source | 9 |
| Fri 5:00pm | Eurocontrol suspends US-bound departures from 42 states at the FAA's request. | Reported elsewhere | 32 |
| Fri about 6:00pm | Pacific-bound departures from San Francisco are cleared to leave. | Checked at source | 33 |
| Fri 6:10pm | NAV CANADA imposes traffic measures at major Canadian airports, lifted at 7:29pm. | Checked at source | 34 |
| Fri 7:05pm | Cirium counts at least 827 diverted flights, 670 of them back to where they started. | Reported elsewhere | 13 |
| Fri 7:40pm | JetBlue posts its fee waiver after cancelling the rest of Friday's flights except those to Europe. | Checked at source | 35 |
| Fri 8:15pm | The ground stop is lifted after 4 hours 21 minutes. | Reported elsewhere | 10 |
| Fri night | Duffy and Homeland Security Secretary Mullin brief at the White House, lift the funding ask to US$50 billion and say there was no cyber attack. | Reported elsewhere | 36 |
| Fri end of day | Friday closes with 9,159 flights cancelled and 7,190 delayed. | Checked at source | 11 |
| Sat 9:30am | Saturday cancellations reach 3,749, with 1,991 delays. | Checked at source | 26 |
| Sat 11:01am | At a press conference Duffy names contractor L3Harris and says a router flooded the network during the fibre switch. | Reported elsewhere | 14 |
| Sat 11:15am | FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford apologises, says 17 of 22 centres were affected and about 12,000 Friday flights were not completed. | Reported elsewhere | 15 |
| Sat 11:30am | Bedford forecasts 4,000 to 5,000 Saturday cancellations out of about 41,000 flights. | Reported elsewhere | 26 |
| Sat 11:47am | New York Governor Kathy Hochul calls for Duffy to resign. | Reported elsewhere | 37 |
| Sat 2:20pm | L3Harris says it is supporting the FAA's investigation. | Reported elsewhere | 37 |
| Sat 4:00pm | Saturday cancellations reach 5,295, above the FAA's forecast. | Checked at source | 29 |
| Sat 5:54pm | The FAA says the root cause is still unknown. | Reported elsewhere | 16 |
| Sat 6:00pm | Saturday cancellations pass 6,000, with close to 7,100 delays. | Checked at source | 12 |
| Sat 6:39pm | The FAA's status feed shows no ground stops and no ground delay programs. | Checked at source | 2 |
| Sun 15 Nov | About 200 Sunday flights were cancelled in advance, and the FAA expects full schedules by close of business. | Reported elsewhere | 10 |
| Mon 16 Nov | Duffy is due to send a detailed funding request and FAA staff are due to brief the House transport committee. | Checked at source | 38 |
The 13 November stop was the second nationwide ground stop since 2001
Since January 2022 at least 26 non-weather failures have halted a whole US airline, stopped several airports at once or cancelled more than 1,000 flights in a day. That is about five a year (4 in 2022, 5 in 2023, 5 in 2024, 7 in 2025, 5 in 2026) with no clear rise. 17
Airline-wide stops in the list ran 21 minutes to 8 hours where a length was reported. 17 The first nationwide ground stop ran from 11 to 14 September 2001. 39
The rule for what counts
An event counts when reporting names a specific non-weather trigger (a computer system, telecommunications or equipment failure, a facility outage, or a government order) and at least one of these is true: (1) the FAA stopped departures for all carriers nationwide; (2) one of the ten airlines ranked in the DOT Air Travel Consumer Report (Alaska, Allegiant, American, Delta, Frontier, Hawaiian, JetBlue, Southwest, Spirit, United) halted all of its departures network-wide, confirmed by an FAA advisory or the airline's own statement; (3) one FAA facility failure produced ground stops at two or more commercial airports or across a whole en route centre's airspace; (4) a flight tracker or the airline counted 1,000 or more US cancellations in a single day and reporting or a regulator attributes that day mainly to the named trigger. Weather-led days are excluded unless a regulator's finding puts the bulk of the cancellations on an operational failure. Single-airport FAA stops, outages with no reported flight impact, airworthiness groundings and diffuse staffing-plus-weather days are excluded. Window: 1 January 2022 to 15 November 2026.
| Date | Event and cause | Caused by | Scope | Stop length | Cancellations | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 Nov 2026 | FAA nationwide ground stopTelecommunications instability across FAA en route centres after router work on the FTI network; root cause still unknown | FAA or government system | Nationwide, all carriers | 4 h 21 min | 9,159Single day, 13 Nov 2026, FlightAware end of day via Upgraded Points | 23 |
| 21 Sep 2026 | Philadelphia TRACON telecom failurePrimary circuit failed and the backup fibre had been cut by a construction crew | FAA or government system | Region, all carriers (EWR, PHL, TEB, JFK, LGA) | 816Single day, 21 Sep 2026, Newark (619) and Philadelphia (197) only, FlightAware via NBC at about 6pm ET | 40 | |
| 6 Aug 2026 | Minneapolis Center telecom outageTelecommunications equipment outage at Minneapolis Air Route Traffic Control Center; cause not published | FAA or government system | Region, all carriers (nine-state en route airspace) | 2 h 15 min | 104Single day, 6 Aug 2026, Delta only, tied to the outage | 41 |
| 28 Jul 2026 | American Airlines network-wide ground stopTechnology problem that cut connectivity to some systems; root cause not published | Airline or its vendor | One carrier, nationwide (American and regionals) | 48 min | 42 | |
| 10 Mar 2026 | JetBlue network-wide ground stopInternal IT system outage | Airline or its vendor | One carrier, nationwide | 55 min | 43 | |
| 7 Nov 2025 | Government shutdown flight cutsController absences during the shutdown and an FAA emergency order cutting flights at 40 airports | Staffing and government order | Nationwide, all carriers (40 airports) | 10,000Multi-day, 7 to 16 Nov 2025, FlightAware via TravelPulse; peak day 9 Nov about 2,800 to 2,900 | 44 | |
| 23 Oct 2025 | Alaska Airlines network-wide ground stopFailure at the primary data centre | Airline or its vendor | One carrier, nationwide (Alaska and Horizon) | 8 h 0 min | 400Multi-day, 23 to 24 Oct 2025 (to 1pm PT Friday), airline's own count | 45 |
| 24 Sep 2025 | United Airlines network-wide ground stopBrief connectivity problem | Airline or its vendor | One carrier, US and Canada | 33 min | 14Single day, 24 Sep 2025, FAA and FlightAware as reported | 46 |
| 19 Sep 2025 | Dallas TRACON telecom outageMultiple failures of a data telecom service; redundancy did not work | FAA or government system | Region, all carriers (DFW and Dallas Love Field) | 47 | ||
| 6 Aug 2025 | United Airlines ground stop (Unimatic)Failure of the Unimatic system that feeds weight-and-balance calculations | Airline or its vendor | One carrier, nationwide (mainline) | 218Single day, 6 Aug 2025, FlightAware via Yahoo | 48 | |
| 20 Jul 2025 | Alaska Airlines network-wide ground stopHardware failure at a data centre | Airline or its vendor | One carrier, nationwide (Alaska and Horizon) | 3 h 0 min | 150Multi-day, 20 to 21 Jul 2025, airline and FlightAware as reported by AP | 49 |
| 30 Jan 2025 | Frontier Airlines network-wide ground stopShort internet outage at Frontier's systems operations centre | Airline or its vendor | One carrier, nationwide | 21 min | 50 | |
| 24 Dec 2024 | American Airlines network-wide ground stopVendor network hardware fault hit systems needed to release flights | Airline or its vendor | One carrier, nationwide | 1 h 0 min | 51 | |
| 22 Sep 2024 | Alaska Airlines system-wide ground stopIT outage, described as a certificate problem | Airline or its vendor | One carrier, nationwide (Alaska and Horizon) | 5Single day, 22 Sep 2024, FlightAware | 52 | |
| 19 Jul 2024 | CrowdStrike outageFaulty CrowdStrike update crashed Windows systems at airlines | Airline or its vendor | Several carriers, nationwide (American, Delta, United and others held departures) | 3,400Single day, 19 Jul 2024, all US carriers, as reported by CNBC via NBC DFW (tracker not named for the Friday figure) | 53 | |
| 18 Jul 2024 | Frontier Airlines network-wide ground stopMicrosoft Azure outage took down Frontier systems | Airline or its vendor | One carrier, nationwide | 131Single day, 18 Jul 2024, FlightAware via CNN | 54 | |
| 17 Apr 2024 | Alaska Airlines network-wide ground stopFault during an upgrade to the weight-and-balance system | Airline or its vendor | One carrier, nationwide (Alaska and Horizon) | 1 h 0 min | 55 | |
| 5 Sep 2023 | United network-wide ground stopSoftware update slowed United's technology systems | Airline or its vendor | One carrier, nationwide | 56 | ||
| 25 Jun 2023 | Potomac TRACON communications failureFailure and repair of a communications power panel at Potomac TRACON, Warrenton, Virginia | FAA or government system | Region, all carriers (DCA, IAD, BWI, RIC) | 57 | ||
| 18 Apr 2023 | Southwest network-wide ground stopData connection problems from a firewall failure | Airline or its vendor | One carrier, nationwide | 58 | ||
| 11 Jan 2023 | FAA NOTAM outage, nationwide ground stopContractor deleted files while synchronising the NOTAM database and its backup | FAA or government system | Nationwide, all carriers | 1 h 30 min | 1,300Single day, 11 Jan 2023, FlightAware via CBS News | 59 |
| 2 Jan 2023 | Miami Center ERAM failureFAA En Route Automation Modernization computer problem at Miami Air Route Traffic Control Center | FAA or government system | Region, all carriers (Florida airports) | 60 | ||
| 21 Dec 2022 | Southwest holiday meltdownWinter storm, then collapse of the crew-scheduling system | Airline or its vendor | One carrier, nationwide | 16,700Multi-day, 21 to 31 Dec 2022, airline's own count | 61 | |
| 2 Apr 2022 | Southwest technology pauseIntermittent performance problems after overnight maintenance of backend technology, alongside Florida storms | Airline or its vendor | One carrier, nationwide | 62 | ||
| 14 Feb 2022 | Spirit Airlines network-wide ground stopAirline IT failure affecting website and internal systems | Airline or its vendor | One carrier, nationwide | 63 | ||
| 7 Feb 2022 | Frontier Airlines network-wide ground stopAirline technology failure, described by the FAA as automation issues | Airline or its vendor | One carrier, nationwide | 64 |
Answers to the questions people searched as the stop unfolded
Questions rising fastest alongside "ground stop" in US searches from 7 to 14 November 2026 included: is there a nationwide ground stop; when was the last nationwide ground stop; is the faa ground stop still happening; reason for faa ground stop; cause of faa ground stop; did the faa lift the ground stop; why is there an faa ground stop; is there a nationwide ground stop right now. 65
Is there a nationwide ground stop right now?
No. At 12:30am ET on Sunday 15 November 2026 the FAA status feed listed no ground stops at any US airport. The FAA's own status page updates every few minutes.
Did the FAA lift the ground stop?
Yes. The nationwide ground stop of 13 November 2026 was lifted at 8:15pm ET after 4 hours 21 minutes. By 6:39pm ET on Saturday 14 November the FAA status feed showed no ground stops and no ground delay programmes.
When was the last nationwide ground stop?
13 November 2026, from 3:54pm to 8:15pm ET. Before that, the FAA stopped all departures nationwide on 11 January 2023 during the NOTAM outage, for about 90 minutes. The 2026 stop was the second nationwide ground stop since 2001.
What caused the FAA ground stop?
Officials said a contractor was switching FAA lines from copper to fibre at a remote site when a router began flooding the telecommunications network, and 17 of 22 en route centres were affected. The Transportation Secretary named the contractor as L3Harris. On Saturday evening the FAA said the root cause was still unknown, and officials said there was no cyber attack.
What does a ground stop mean?
It is an FAA order that keeps flights meeting set criteria on the ground, usually every departure headed to one airport or one stretch of airspace. Your plane stays at the gate until the FAA releases it.
Can planes take off during a ground stop?
Flights covered by the stop cannot take off until the FAA releases them. Flights to airports outside the stop keep operating, and on 13 November some Pacific-bound departures from San Francisco were cleared to leave at about 6pm ET while the national stop was still in force.
Can planes still land during a ground stop?
The order applies to aircraft still on the ground. On 13 November, Cirium counted at least 827 diverted flights by 7:05pm ET, 670 of them sent back to where they started.
How long does a ground stop typically last?
The FAA does not publish a typical length. Its rules let a single facility call a local ground stop for conditions expected to last no more than 30 minutes, and a national stop comes with an expected update time. The nationwide stop on 13 November 2026 ran 4 hours 21 minutes, against about 90 minutes in January 2023.
Why would there be a ground stop?
The FAA's order lists severely reduced capacity (weather below landing minimums, a runway closed for snow, an accident), avoiding long airborne holding, airspace or airports close to saturation, a facility that cannot provide air traffic services, and routes closed by severe weather or catastrophic events.
Is a ground stop the same as a cancellation?
No. A ground stop delays departures. Airlines then decide which flights to cancel, and on 13 November the cancellation count kept climbing after the stop lifted, reaching 9,159 by the end of Friday.
Does the airline pay for a hotel during a ground stop?
Usually no. US airline promises of hotels and meals apply when the airline caused the disruption, and an FAA system failure sits outside its control. No US airline's page offered hotels or meals after the 13 November stop. You can still claim a full cash refund if your flight was cancelled and you chose not to travel.
How many nationwide ground stops have there been?
Three on record: 11 September 2001, the NOTAM outage on 11 January 2023 and 13 November 2026. Since January 2022, at least 26 non-weather failures have halted a whole airline, stopped several airports at once or cancelled more than 1,000 flights in a day, about five a year with no clear rise.
Airport pages show each airport's FAA status and the ways out
- Tampa International Airport (TPA): no FAA programme or closure listed
- Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS): no FAA programme or closure listed
- San Diego International Airport (SAN): no FAA programme or closure listed
- Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA): no FAA programme or closure listed
- Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW): no FAA programme or closure listed
- Nashville International Airport (BNA): no FAA programme or closure listed
- Orlando International Airport (MCO): no FAA programme or closure listed
Every figure links to its source
65 sources
Numbers in boxes point to this list. "Checked at source" means the original page was read. "Reported elsewhere" means the figure was reported via another outlet or a partial read and should be checked against the original before reuse. Full sourcing for the 13 November record is on the methodology and sources page.
- 1 FAA Order JO 7210.3, chapter 18, section 13 (Ground Stops) Checked at source
- 2 FAA airport status feed, read 12:30am ET on Sunday 15 November 2026 Checked at source
- 3 FAA Order JO 7210.3, chapter 18, section 10 (Ground Delay Programs) Checked at source
- 4 US refund rule, 14 CFR Part 260 (eCFR) Checked at source
- 5 American Airlines conditions of carriage and customer service plan Checked at source
- 6 Airline responses table, 62 airlines (data.json, 15 November 2026) Checked at source
- 7 DOT final rule on delay cause categories, 91 FR 56588 Reported elsewhere
- 8 Travel insurance cover table, delay waiting periods (data.json coverage, 15 November 2026) Checked at source
- 9 FAA command centre advisory 111 Checked at source
- 10 The Points Guy Reported elsewhere
- 11 FlightAware via CBS News Checked at source
- 12 FlightAware via CNBC Checked at source
- 13 Al Jazeera Reported elsewhere
- 14 Yahoo News live blog Reported elsewhere
- 15 Yahoo News live blog and CNN Reported elsewhere
- 16 CNBC Reported elsewhere
- 17 Disruption events list, rebuilt 15 November 2026 (sources per row) Checked at source
- 18 FlightAware via Reuters and US News Checked at source
- 19 FlightAware via Karryon Checked at source
- 20 FlightAware via NBC News live blog Checked at source
- 21 FlightAware via VisaVerge Checked at source
- 22 CBS News and BBC via Wikipedia Checked at source
- 23 FlightAware via Upgraded Points Checked at source
- 24 FlightAware via NBC News Checked at source
- 25 FlightAware via CNN Checked at source
- 26 FlightAware via NBC News live blog Checked at source
- 27 FlightAware via DPA and Yahoo News Checked at source
- 28 Yahoo News live blog Not confirmed
- 29 Fox News live blog Reported elsewhere
- 30 Atlanta News First Checked at source
- 31 Roll Call Reported elsewhere
- 32 Wikipedia Reported elsewhere
- 33 San Francisco Standard Checked at source
- 34 Globe and Mail Checked at source
- 35 JetBlue travel alerts Checked at source
- 36 CBS News Reported elsewhere
- 37 ABC News live updates Reported elsewhere
- 38 House Transportation Committee Democrats Checked at source
- 39 Auto Rental News Checked at source
- 40 Aerocorner Checked at source
- 41 Aerocorner Checked at source
- 42 ABC7 New York Checked at source
- 43 The Register Reported elsewhere
- 44 FlightAware via TravelPulse Reported elsewhere
- 45 The Register Reported elsewhere
- 46 CBS News Reported elsewhere
- 47 Reuters via WAM Reported elsewhere
- 48 FlightGlobal Reported elsewhere
- 49 WBTV (AP) Reported elsewhere
- 50 Reuters via Yahoo Checked at source
- 51 NBC Chicago Reported elsewhere
- 52 AirlineGeeks Reported elsewhere
- 53 CNBC via NBC DFW Checked at source
- 54 CNN Reported elsewhere
- 55 WDBJ7 (AP) Reported elsewhere
- 56 CBS News Miami Reported elsewhere
- 57 WTOP Reported elsewhere
- 58 PBS NewsHour (AP) Reported elsewhere
- 59 CBS News Reported elsewhere
- 60 AVweb Reported elsewhere
- 61 FlightGlobal Reported elsewhere
- 62 The Points Guy Checked at source
- 63 Reuters via KFGO Reported elsewhere
- 64 The Points Guy Reported elsewhere
- 65 Google Trends, US, 7 to 14 November 2026 Checked at source