More Than 1,000 Flights Delayed As Airlines Work Past FAA Outage Issue
By Jason Hall
January 12, 2023
More than 1,000 flights within, into or out of the United States were delayed Thursday (January 12) morning as airlines attempt to work past an outage to a Federal Aviation Administration system that took place the previous day.
The FAA temporarily halted all domestic flight departures from the U.S. early Wednesday (January 11) morning after a failure to its Notice to Air Missions (NOTAMS) -- which provides pilots with pre-flight safety notices -- that caused a widespread of delays nationwide after the order was lifted at 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday.
A total of 1,075 delays within, into, or out of the U.S. were reported as of 9:30 ET on Thursday, according to FlightAware.com.
More than 8,000 delays within, into, or out of the U.S. were reported on Wednesday.
“This thing was lifted at 9 a.m. Eastern. That doesn’t mean the problem stops at 9 a.m. This is going to cause ripple effects,” said Captain Chris Torres, vice president of the Allied Pilots Association, whose members fly for American Airlines, via Reuters.
Update 5: Normal air traffic operations are resuming gradually across the U.S. following an overnight outage to the Notice to Air Missions system that provides safety info to flight crews. The ground stop has been lifted.
— The FAA ✈️ (@FAANews) January 11, 2023
We continue to look into the cause of the initial problem
The delays on Wednesday and Thursday are the latest in a series of recent aviation issues.
Last month, Southwest Airlines had canceled the majority of its scheduled flights on several days during and after the Christmas weekend as technical issues coincided with Winter Storm Elliott.
Southwest Airlines employees were unable to communicate with the airline due to technological issues, TWU Local 556 union president Lyn Montgomery told CNN's Pamela Brown on December 26.
Southwest Chief Operating Officer Andrew Watterson said the company's outdated scheduling software was the main cause for the massive cancellations -- which continued even after Winter Storm Elliott cleared in most parts of the country -- as some crew members were left stranded and Southwest's crew schedulers attempted to put together a new schedule, which was complicated by the Federal Aviation Administration's strict regulations.
Other airlines also dealt with delays during Winter Storm Elliott, however, averaged no more than 2% of its scheduled flights.