Air India News: US Flights Operate on Schedule Despite Nationwide FAA Ground Stop
Air India News
Air India confirmed on Saturday that all its flights operating to and from the United States remained on schedule without any significant delays, even as a rare nationwide aviation shutdown caused widespread chaos across American airports. According to the Tata Group-owned carrier, its long-haul services bound for New York, Newark, and San Francisco landed on time, and return departures from these hubs operated smoothly without major disruption.
The massive travel disruption began on Friday afternoon (November 13) when the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered a rare nationwide ground stop for all departing flights across the United States. The emergency halt was triggered by severe telecommunications failures affecting all 22 regional Air Route Traffic Control Centres, which manage aircraft flying between airports.
- Duration of the Halt: The ground stop lasted for over four hours—from 3:54 PM to 8:15 PM Eastern Time—marking only the third nationwide flight grounding in US history.
- Root Cause: US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy attributed the outage to overloaded communications equipment tied to aging air traffic control infrastructure, with officials pointing to a faulty router installed during ongoing fiber-optic upgrades.
- Widespread Impact: While the ground stop was lifted Friday night, ripple effects continued through the weekend as airlines struggled to reposition aircraft and crews. More than 4,700 flights were cancelled on Friday and another 2,500+ flights were cancelled on Saturday, alongside thousands of delays.
As the sole Indian airline operating direct non-stop flights between India and the United States, Air India initially issued a precautionary travel advisory warning passengers of potential delays. However, because international arrivals already airborne were handled on a case-by-case basis and the restriction was lifted before key return departures, Air India avoided major schedule setbacks.
“All our flights to and from the US have been operating as per schedule without any significant delay in spite of air traffic getting severely impacted due to the nationwide ground stop in the USA since last night,” Air India stated.
While Air India’s direct flights remained largely unaffected, passengers holding connecting domestic tickets within the United States are still advised to monitor their onward flight status closely, as American carriers continue clearing passenger backlogs through Sunday.
Ajeet Yadav is an aviation enthusiast covering airline news, airports, aircraft, and industry developments through well-researched and reliable reporting.
