FAA ground stop lifted, stranded travelers at California airports await what’s next

A ground halt at all U.S. airports ordered Friday afternoon by the Federal Aviation Administration has been lifted, according to federal officials.

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At a White House news briefing, Sean Duffy, secretary of transportation, said the order had been lifted, but it would take time to “unwind what’s happened.”

Flight cancellations and delays as a result of the freeze may last through the weekend, Duffy said, noting that tens of thousands of travelers were stranded at airports across the United States.

“We’re going to have some makeup to do,” Duffy said. He said he expected flights to be “back up and operational” by peak Thanksgiving travel.

Federal officials said they will prioritize larger flights moving more passengers as air operations resume.

Duffy blamed a communications problem at air traffic control centers in a post to X. At the briefing, he said outdated routers became overwhelmed with data and began reporting inconsistent results, prompting the shutdown with more than 3,500 flights in the air.

Mullin said there was no indication the problem was related to a cyberattack or other attack. He said prompt action by federal officials mean no one was endangered by the problem.

The FAA earlier said it issued the order for “extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety.”

“All departing traffic should remain ground stopped until further notice. Inbound international flights will be managed on a case by case basis,” the alert said in the initial announcement.

According to FlightAware, nearly 9,000 flightswithin the United States have been delayed and more than 6,500 have been canceled as of about 6:30 p.m. Friday.

Social media posts about the ground stop coinciding with a national weather radar outage were disputed by the National Weather Service. “In case you heard otherwise, there is no radar outage and radar.weather.gov is fully operational! Outdated content from isolated webpages stating otherwise has been circulating, but NWS radars are operating normally.”

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Ongoing heavy rains across the western United States could complicate any flight scheduling this weekend, with heavy rains Friday moving east into Utah and Arizona Saturday and Sunday, according to McClatchy meteorologist Sean Macaday.

This is only the second time a nationwide ground stop has been ordered since Sept. 11, 2001. The other occurred in 2023 and was caused by a major computer outage.

The order covered all California airports. In his own post on X Gov. Gavin Newsom said his office was monitoring the situation.

Sacramento International Airport issued a travel advisory about the halt, warning travelers of flight delays and urging them to check directly with their airline for the latest updates before heading to the airport.

The outage came about two weeks before Thanksgiving, expected to be one of the busiest travel periods of the year, with nearly 29 million people expected to be flying on U.S. airlines.

At various Northern California airports during the ground halt air travelers seemed to be taking the delays calmly.

One family of eight awaited word as they searched for their luggage before heading out to visit relatives in Redding

Sports teams at all levels were grounded at the airport Friday afternoon.

Members of the Sacramento Republic FC professional soccer team were spotted waiting at the Terminal B baggage claim.

McClatchy’s Thaddeus Miller, Libbey Hanson, Sadie Dittenber and Camila Pedrosa contributed to this story.

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This story was originally published November 13, 2026 at 1:55 PM.