All US departures grounded: FAA nationwide ground stop
Since 3:54 p.m. New York time on Friday 13 November (21:54 in the Netherlands), the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has stopped all departures from US airports, citing "extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety".
The cause is a communication outage at the air traffic control centres. Flights already in the air continue to their destination; international flights to the US are handled case by case. The FAA has not said when departures will resume.
What to do if you're flying
Flying from the Netherlands or Europe to the US: check your airline's app or website before you go to the airport. Your flight may be delayed, held or cancelled. Enter your flight number on Check my flight for its live status.
Flying back from the US: departures are halted for now. Expect cancellations and full flights into the weekend, even after departures resume.
Your rights from Europe: on a flight departing from an EU airport, or flying to the EU on a European airline (KLM, Air France, Lufthansa and others), EU Regulation 261 gives you the choice of a refund or a new flight, and meals and a hotel while you wait. Extra compensation of €250 to €600 is usually not due, because an air traffic control outage counts as an extraordinary circumstance.
On a US airline from the US: under US rules you can get a full refund if your flight is cancelled or delayed more than 3 hours (domestic) or 6 hours (international) and you choose not to travel. Airlines don't have to pay for meals or a hotel during a ground stop.
Keep receipts and screenshots of delay notices. On separate tickets, call the second airline before your first flight leaves.
Updates
-
FAA airport status list at 18:31 New York time: no ground stops listed for individual airports. Ground delay programs (arrivals held back) at SFO, BOS, LGA, SAN.
-
FAA airport status list at 18:21 New York time: ground stops listed for flights from YUL. Ground delay programs (arrivals held back) at SFO, BOS, LGA, SAN. Departure delays reported at ORD, IAH.
-
FAA airport status list at 18:14 New York time: ground stops listed for flights from YUL, YYZ. Ground delay programs (arrivals held back) at SFO, BOS, LGA, SAN. Departure delays reported at ORD.
-
At 23:40 Amsterdam time we have found no announcement that departures have resumed. We'll add it here as soon as there is one.
Source: The National
-
The FAA says every flight has been accounted for, and that international flights will be handled case by case.
Source: USA Today via Yahoo News
-
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says the stop follows "a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers". FAA technicians are investigating.
Source: CBS News
-
Nearly 7,000 US flights are delayed or cancelled, according to Reuters. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin says there is no indication of an attack and that restoring communications is the top priority; aircraft will be sequenced back from a priority list.
Source: USA Today via Yahoo News
-
The FAA orders a ground stop for all departing flights at US airports, "due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety". The advisory lists an end time late on Friday evening New York time, but aircraft must stay on the ground until further notice. Shortly before, traffic in Chicago had been halted. It is only the second nationwide ground stop since 11 September 2001; the last one was in January 2023.
Updates marked "FAA airport status list" are posted automatically when the FAA's official list of airport ground stops and delay programs changes. A nationwide order isn't always listed per airport.
Times are Amsterdam time. We summarise what airlines, aviation authorities and news outlets report, with a link to each source; check your airline for your own flight.