WASHINGTON, D.C. Jan. 11 (UPI) — All domestic flights in the United States came to a standstill Wednesday morning while the Federal Aviation Administration worked to restore its Notice to Air Missions system after an outage.
The FAA ordered all airlines to pause domestic departures until 9 a.m. EST, to allow the agency “to validate the integrity of flight and safety information.”
According to the flight-tracking website FlightAware, 123 flights had been canceled in the United States as of 8 a.m. with carriers reporting 2,512 delays.
The FAA system, known as NOTAM, alerts pilots and airports of real-time hazards.
It shut down around 3:28 a.m., but the FAA said some functions started to return by 6 a.m. as it opened a hotline to address equipment issues.
Individual airlines warned their customers about the delays.
“The Federal Aviation Administration is experiencing an outage with its NOTAM (Notice to Air Missions) system, which provides critical flight safety operation information,” American Airlines said. “We are closely monitoring the situation, which impacts all airlines and working with the FAA to minimize disruption to our operation and customers. We encourage customers to check aa.com for the latest flight information.”
Southwest Airlines followed with a message confirming the hiccup.
“We are closely monitoring a data issue with FAA systems, which may impact the start of operations today on Jan. 11, 2023,” Southwest said. “Please check your flight status in the Southwest app or website to watch for any flight status changes. If your flight status changes substantially, we will message the day of travel contact listed on your reservation by their preferred contact method.”
