Australian travellers stranded as nationwide US ground stop cancels thousands of flights

At JFK Airport in New York, Trish Crabb of Adelaide found out that her Delta flight to Miami had been cancelled. She and her husband are on holiday in the United States, and the plan was to fly to Miami, then drive to Fort Lauderdale to board a cruise. Now her husband was going to look for a hotel room nearby, she said, and they would hope for a flight at some point.

The cause was an order from the Federal Aviation Administration, which issued a nationwide ground stop on Friday, US time, after communications problems hit air traffic control centres across the country. The agency said it acted because of "extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety." More than 11,000 flights were delayed or cancelled, and passengers were left waiting in airports from the east coast to the west.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the problem affected all of the Air Route Traffic Control Centres, and that technicians were working to find the cause. The outage hit the 22 regional centres that direct aircraft between airports nationwide. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said early findings pointed to a telecommunications outage. "There's no indication as of yet that this was a nefarious attack against it. It's just a telecommunications outage as of right now," he said.

The numbers show the scale. About 11,000 flights carrying more than 1.5 million passengers were scheduled to leave US airports after 4pm Eastern time on Friday. At least 600 flights were diverted, either sent back to where they took off or redirected elsewhere. Aircraft already in the air were allowed to continue to their destinations, with authorities putting their safe landing first. It was the first nationwide ground stop since January 2023, when a computer failure at the FAA caused thousands of delays, and only the second since the September 11 attacks in 2001.

The ground stop has since been lifted, but airlines have warned that clearing the backlog will take time. The effects reached Australia too. Sydney Airport said US-bound flights had been temporarily grounded at Mascot on Saturday morning, then confirmed they would resume, and urged passengers to contact their airlines.

Rivkah Brown, from Myrtleford in Victoria, was stuck at San Diego Airport after her Delta flight was cancelled. She had just come off a cruise and was stopping in San Diego on her way to Las Vegas, where she was due to meet her fiancé. Instead she planned to take a bus, a trip of almost 10 hours. "It's disappointing but it is what it is," she said. Ms Crabb described a similar mood at JFK, saying everyone was very calm and most people were taking it in their stride. Other affected airports included Los Angeles International.

For Australians who may be affected, the Australian Travel Industry Association is asking anyone due to fly within the next 72 hours to contact their airline or travel agent, especially if they have not heard from them. People travelling later are being asked to wait so urgent cases can be handled first. Travellers should also check their airline's website or app. ATIA chief executive Dean Long said the situation was unsettling for travellers, that members were there to help, and that the association was monitoring closely.

The federal government's SmartTraveller site tells Australians to follow the media, contact airlines for updates and reschedule where needed, while advising "normal safety precautions" in the US. What remains to watch is how quickly airlines work through the backlog, and what technicians find as the cause of the outage.