Several thousand flights in and out of the US have been cancelled today, and experts say it will take several days to get back to normal after Friday’s equipment snafu.
FlightAware was reporting nearly 4,200 cancelled flights in and out of the US and some 3,300 delays as of 11:30 am ET on Saturday. Chicago O’Hare had 480 inbound and outbound cancellations, while Atlanta Hartsfield was at 445, Dallas-Forth Worth at 333, Denver at 259and New York JFK at 251.
CNN aviation analyst and former managing director for the National Transportation Safety Board Peter Goelz said airlines face several challenges, including aircraft that are out of position and crew members who have reached their duty limits.
But the network also is quoting an FAA official as saying the worst is over and that full service could be restored across the States by Sunday afternoon, 15NOV.
The US Federal Aviation Administration issued a ground stop at 3:53 pm Friday after several major airports reported communication breakdowns. Service wasn’t restored until 8:15 pm, resulting in what Flight Aware said were nearly 10,000 cancelled US flights and more than 7,000 delays
US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said a contractor was doing routine maintenance to upgrade copper wire to fibre optic cable when something went wrong, the CBC reports. He said the investigation will determine whether the fault was due to "incompetence" or "a faulty router."
“It was such an old wire that it was being discontinued, meaning that line was going to get shut down. So we had to switch it over from old copper,” Duffy said. CNN is quoting Duffy as saying the copper wire replacement is “straightforward” work that has been happening across the country for decades.
"It's going to continue to fail," Duffy warned late Friday. He repeated there was no evidence to indicate a cyberattack, but said investigators hadn't ruled one out.
Former US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told CNN that US airports are using “antiquated” equipment.
“This is an old, old, old, old system,” he said.
Canadian airlines have said domestic flights were not impacted. But they had to cancel flights in and out of the US, as well as flights that went over US airspace.
As of 11:30 am ET on Saturday, Flight Aware was reporting 669 cancelled Delta flights, plus 643 cancellations for American and 582 for United. Their website showed 37 cancellations for Air Canada, 31 for Air Canada Rouge, 19 for Air Canada Jazz, 34 for WestJet and 16 for Porter.
WestJet said guests travelling to and from the continental US Mexico or the Caribbean, with upcoming travel Saturday (14NOV) and Sunday (15NOV), can make a one-time change or cancellation without a fee.
Air Canada’s website states that it will take time for operations to fully recover, and that some flights may continued to be delayed or cancelled.
“If your flight is impacted, we will contact you directly with updated travel information as soon as it becomes available.”
CNN said American Airlines has told fliers they can change their reservation or receive a refund. American cancelled 1,239 flights on Friday.
