Flying this weekend? Here’s what Canadian travellers need to know after FAA ground stop

Canadian travellers are still facing cancelled or delayed flights on Saturday, after the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ended a historic four-hour ground stop. 

FAA says U.S. flight operations are slowly returning to normal on Saturday morning, after the agency lifted a nationwide ground stop that lasted four hours and cancelled or delayed thousands of flights across the country on Friday. 

Although the ground stop was lifted at 8:15 p.m. ET on Friday, passengers are still feeling the effects of the service shutdown on Saturday, as airports and airlines work to recover from the hours-long grounding and fully restore operations. 

Canadian travellers impacted 

While the grounding took place in the U.S., Canadian travellers flying to, from, or through the country have also been facing the impacts. 

On Friday, Air Canada advised customers that it had cancelled their flights to and from the country for the entire evening, and that other flights to Caribbean and South American destinations with transit through the U.S. airspace might also be impacted. 

Now that the ground stop has ended, the airline advises passengers to double check their flight status before heading to the airport, as delays and cancellations might continue as it recovers from the interruption. 

“If your flight was cancelled, you can check your booking for the latest information and use our self-service options to review or manage your travel where available,” the airline’s website advises. 

Meanwhile, WestJet is allowing those travelling to and from the U.S., Mexico, and the Caribbean between Nov. 13–15 to make one-time changes or cancellations without any fees. The airline also encourages travellers to check the status of their flights before going to the airport. 

Porter Airlines says its schedules will likely take the entire weekend to return to normal, as FAA’s operations gradually return. Similar to Air Canada and WestJet, Porter’s customers are also advised to check their bookings before heading to the airport and says they can expect longer than normal wait times for its call centre. 

“For those who have flexibility, complimentary moves for flights across our network are available, when space permits,” the airline’s website states.

Toronto Pearson Airport says it has also increased its terminal and Passenger Care Team staff on Saturday to further support travellers as delays are expected. 

Historic ground stop caused by telecommunications and data-overload issues

The FAA first issued the ground stop at 3:54 p.m. ET, saying the measure was “out of an abundance of caution” due to a temporary telecommunications outage. 

In a press conference on Friday evening, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the decision to issue the ground stop came after controllers noticed instability in radar data and telecommunications with aircrafts at around 3:36 p.m. 

“What we have is an incredibly old air traffic control system… Our switches, our routers, actually got overloaded with data and it went down… They started to give us inconsistencies with the data,” he said. 

Officials also emphasized that the issue was not linked to cyberattackers or to the Microsoft 365 outage that took place on Thursday. 

After the grounding was announced, Canada’s Minister of Transport Steven MacKinnon revealed that Canada has offered support to U.S. officials as they handled the situation. 

“We remain ready to provide support to our American colleagues as the situation evolves,” he said on X. 

This was the second time the U.S. has been through a nationwide ground stop, with the first time being during the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. 

The ground stop was only lifted at 8:15 p.m. ET, after the FAA said it tested its systems to ensure travel safety.