Flight disruptions continue after FAA lifts nationwide ground stop

Delays and cancellations continued today after a router overload disrupted air traffic control and prompted the FAA to halt departures nationwide for more than four hours.

Travelers walk through Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Va., today. Tom Brenner / AP

Airlines recovering from yesterday’s ground stop are still facing difficulties as thousands of delays and cancelations remain, according to Flight Aware.

The airline tracking service logged a total of 1,991 delays in the U.S. by 9:30 a.m. ET this morning. Another 3,749 flights have been canceled, the website said.

Unsurprisingly, it appears the majority of issues are concentrated in the nation’s major travel hubs. Flight Aware’s “Misery Map” ranked Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, and New York City’s John. F. Kennedy International Airport as areas with the most issues this morning.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is expected to hold a press conference at 10:30 a.m. ET this morning to provide updates as travelers whose journeys were interrupted yesterday attempt to continue on their trips.

Expect the effects of the extraordinary nationwide ground stoppage on air travel to take time to alleviate, but Transportation Secretary Duffy said Friday night he was optimistic things will be ready for the Thanksgiving rush.

“I think we’re going to be back up and operational as we come into the heat of travel during Thanksgiving,” he said.

There’s only a week or so to go before college students and other far-flung family members fly to gather for the holiday, whic is one of the most heavily traveled periods of the year.

The ground stop was lifted tonight, but recovery will be slow as planes and crews need to be repositioned, Duffy said.

Some teams scheduled to play this weekend adjusted the start times of games, rescheduled flights and chartered buses amid the chaos of the FAA ground stop.

In college football, Auburn opted to take a bus to Mississippi State with the SEC pushing back the start time to 4:15 p.m. Saturday. Purdue decided to board buses from West Lafayette, Indiana, for its game at Iowa.

Other schools affected included Baylor, Washington, Kansas State, Minnesota and No. 19 Ole Miss, which said it did not plan on flying to Oklahoma for its game against the Sooners until Saturday morning.

The Kansas-West Virginia game scheduled for 5:30 p.m. ET was being moved up to 3:30 p.m. since the Jayhawks arrived in plenty of time. That allowed the Arizona State-UCF game to shift to 5:30 p.m., giving the Sun Devils more time after their flight to Florida was delayed.