FAA nationwide ground stop, 13 November 2026: what happened and how a ground stop works

On Friday, 13 November 2026, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a nationwide ground stop for all US airports. According to the FAA's statement, the reason was communication issues impacting multiple Air Route Traffic Control Centers (ARTCCs) (FAA statement). The stop lasted more than four hours.

Below: what happened, what officials said, how large the disruption was, and what a ground stop means under the FAA's own rulebook. We only use sources we have opened.

According to NBC News, instability was first detected at 3:36 p.m. (citing Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy), and the FAA issued the nationwide ground stop for departing flights at 3:54 p.m. (NBC News). NBC reports that the FAA notice cited "extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety" and said all departing traffic should remain on the ground until further notice.

The short statement on the FAA website, marked preliminary, says the stop followed communication issues at multiple ARTCCs and that FAA technicians were investigating (FAA statement).

The ground stop was lifted at 8:15 p.m. ET (CNBC; Al Jazeera). CNBC reports the FAA said flights could depart as en route facilities recovered, in coordination with the air traffic control system. International flights began departing from coastal hubs before 6 p.m. ET.

• FAA (on X, per CNBC): referred to a "temporary telecommunications outage" and said it halted flights out of an "abundance of caution" (CNBC).
• Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy: at a late-Friday press conference he said telecommunications routers were overloaded with data and "went down" (CNBC). Per NBC, he also said the FAA did not lose all telecom or radar capability and that the stop was a precaution. Medical flights were not stopped (NBC News).
• Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin: per NBC, there was no sign of a cyberattack and the public was never in danger; per CNBC, he said it "appears this was mechanically driven."

At the time of writing, the exact technical cause was still under investigation. Al Jazeera, citing Bloomberg, reported that the FBI does not believe a cyberattack caused the failure, but the cause has not been determined (Al Jazeera).

Figures differ by source and are provisional:

• FlightAware (reported by CBS News, cited by Al Jazeera): more than 10,000 delays and at least 4,000 cancellations.
• NBC News: more than 7,000 cancelled flights.
• Cirium (cited by CNBC): 11,000 flights were scheduled to depart US airports after 4 p.m. ET, carrying 1.5 million passengers; about 600 flights were diverted.
• Flightradar24 (cited by NBC and Al Jazeera): 4,042 flights were airborne and headed to US destinations when the stop was issued.

Among airlines, CNBC reports that JetBlue, according to an internal memo, cancelled the rest of its Friday flights except European routes, plus its Saturday flights, to reposition crews and aircraft. Delta, United and American said they were resuming flights on Friday evening (NBC News).

Under the FAA's traffic management order (JO 7210.3, Chapter 18, Section 13), a ground stop is a process that requires aircraft meeting specific criteria to remain on the ground (FAA JO 7210.3, 18-13). The criteria may be airport-specific, airspace-specific or equipment-specific.

Key points of the order:

1. Priority: a ground stop overrides all other traffic management initiatives. Aircraft may only be released with the approval of the unit that issued it.
2. When it is used: in severely reduced capacity, to avoid extended airborne holding, to prevent sector or centre saturation, or when a facility is fully or partly unable to provide ATC services due to unforeseen circumstances.
3. Local and national level: a facility may issue a local ground stop when the impact stays within its own area and is not expected to last more than 30 minutes. A national ground stop is issued by the Air Traffic Control System Command Center (ATCSCC), after less restrictive measures have been evaluated.
4. Notification: the ATCSCC transmits an advisory listing the airport, facilities included, expected update time, reason and probability of extension.
5. Cancellation: time permitting, the ATCSCC coordinates a release plan with facilities and users, then issues a cancellation advisory. Start and stop times, affected facilities and the reason must be logged.

ARTCCs are the en route centres that handle high-altitude traffic (CNBC). When communications at several centres are disrupted at once, the whole network is affected, which is why the stop covered the entire country rather than a single airport.

According to CNBC and Al Jazeera, this was only the second nationwide halt since 9/11. The previous one was in January 2023, when the NOTAM pilot alert system failed (NBC News). CNBC also notes that in September 2026 a cut Verizon fiber line disrupted hundreds of flights into Newark and Philadelphia.

What is known:

1. The FAA issued a nationwide ground stop at 3:54 p.m. ET on 13 November 2026 and lifted it at 8:15 p.m. ET.
2. The official reason was communication issues at multiple ARTCCs.
3. The Transportation Secretary said overloaded routers went down; the Homeland Security Secretary said there was no indication of a cyberattack.

What is not known:

1. The final technical cause. The FAA investigation was ongoing at the time of writing.
2. The exact flight count. Cancellation figures range from 4,000 to more than 7,000 depending on the source.
3. Which centres were affected. The FAA statement does not name them.
4. The pace of weekend recovery. CNBC reports cancellations stretching into the weekend.
5. Market effects. This article does not discuss prices and makes no forecast.

• On 13 November 2026 the FAA halted departures across the US for more than four hours.
• The official reason was communication issues at multiple en route centres; the Transportation Secretary pointed to overloaded routers.
• The disruption meant thousands of cancellations and more than 10,000 delays; it was the first nationwide stop since January 2023.

• FAA, statement on nationwide ground stop, 13 November 2026: https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/faa-statement-nationwide-ground-stop
• FAA, JO 7210.3, Chapter 18 Section 13 (Ground Stop(s)): https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/publications/atpubs/foa_html/chap18_section_13.html
• NBC News, 13–14 November 2026: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/faa-orders-nationwide-ground-stop-departing-flights-reasons-safety-rcna609247
• CNBC, 13 November 2026: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/11/13/faa-ground-stop.html
• Al Jazeera, 13 November 2026: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/11/13/us-grounds-all-flights-after-communication-issue

Educational content. Not investment advice. Not a forecast. Data Analytic Investments is not affiliated with the FAA, the US Department of Transportation or the airlines, data providers and news organisations cited; names are used for identification only.