More than 3,000 flights within, into or out of the US had been canceled by Saturday morning, according to FlightAware, as airlines dug out from Friday's nationwide ground stop, which wiped out more than 9,100 flights that day and left tens of thousands of passengers stuck in airports overnight.
As we reported Friday night, the FAA lifted the stop at about 8:15 p.m. ET, roughly four hours after it halted every departure in the country. It was only the second nationwide ground stop since the September 11 attacks; the first came in January 2023, when the FAA's pilot-alert system failed.
The safety of the flying public is always the FAA's highest priority. The FAA lifted the ground stop and some flight departures are resuming. Before clearing flights to resume, we thoroughly tested our systems to confirm they were stable and that operations remain reliable....
— The FAA ✈️ (@FAANews) November 14, 2026
"It's going to be slow," Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told reporters at the White House Friday night, warning that airlines would need time to get back to normal capacity and that some passengers would have to be re
