FAA: Flight Disruptions Continue Despite Operations Returning to Normal

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced that operations had returned to normal on Thursday, a day after its national pilot-alert system shut down and the agency grounded all domestic flights for nearly two hours.
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On Wednesday, thousands of passengers were stranded across the U.S. in one of the air travel industry’s biggest meltdowns in years. The FAA said its Notice to Air Missions system, which provides safety information to pilots, sustained an outage that it later blamed on a damaged database file.
According to FlightAware, a total of 10,689 flights to, from, or within the U.S. were delayed on Wednesday, with 1,353 flights being canceled.
On Thursday morning, over 1,200 flights in the U.S. were delayed and over 100 were canceled, according to a flight-data company.
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The FAA has announced that operations are back to normal and there are no delays or cancellations at this time.
Several airlines, including Delta Air Lines Inc., have been forced to make changes to their operations in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Delta, for example, has implemented a number of new safety measures, such as enhanced cleaning procedures and social distancing measures.
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United Airlines Holdings Inc. is one of the largest airlines in the world, with a strong presence in the United States. The company has a long history, dating back to 1926, and has been a major player in the airline industry for many years. United Airlines is a publicly traded company, listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and is a member of the S&P 500 index.
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The two largest airlines in the United States are Delta Air Lines and American Airlines Group Inc. Delta is the larger of the two, with a market capitalization of $37.7 billion as of May 2019, compared to American Airlines' $25.5 billion. However, American Airlines has a higher stock price, with shares trading at $9.13 as of May 2019, compared to Delta's $53.73.
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American Airlines said they expected operations to normalize by Thursday and offered to waive fare differences for certain customers who wished to rebook flights. A few cancellations were expected to linger from Wednesday.
The grounding of the Boeing 737 Max marked the U.S. air travel industry's second major setback in recent weeks. Southwest Airlines Co. was forced to cancel thousands of flights over several days during the holidays after its crew-scheduling system glitched. The grounding of the Boeing 737 Max has caused major disruptions for airlines and passengers alike.
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The Notams system is designed to alert pilots about potential hazards, including closed runways, along their flight route. In order to validate the integrity of its safety information, the FAA has ordered flights to be grounded. The agency is currently in the process of overhauling the aging system, but it is not expected to be completed for another two years.
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This appears to be the first time since 9/11 that the government has instituted a nationwide flight ban, according to a government official.
As the FAA worked to restore its Notams system on Wednesday, passengers across the country faced delays of several hours. Some said they were not given any explanation by airport or airline staff, and were simply told that their flights could not take off.
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"I'm going crazy stuck here at LaGuardia Airport in New York," said Daniel Dividu, a passenger, on Wednesday.
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Mr. Dividu, a 40-year-old truck driver from the Bronx, said a gate agent rescheduled him onto a flight that was four hours later than his original one.
He was supposed to travel to Atlanta to visit his family, but something came up and he had to stay home. "This is too frustrating," he said.
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The Biden administration said that the Notams outage didn't appear to be caused by a cyberattack, according to cybersecurity experts. The White House said that an investigation would occur.