British Airways and Virgin cancel flights from UK airports after FAA outage
A major outage in the US has grounded all flights.
Passengers flying to and from UK airports are likely to face disruption after flights were grounded across the United States.
The US’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has halted all flights nationwide “due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety”.
British Airways has cancelled a flight to New York which had been due to take off from London Heathrow at 10.30pm on Friday.
A spokesman for Manchester Airport confirmed three US-bound flights scheduled to leave on Saturday morning – all operated by Virgin Atlantic – are likely to be affected if the issue is not resolved soon.
A Virgin Atlantic spokesperson said: “We’re aware of the ground stop order issued by the Federal Aviation Administration for all US airports.
“We’re closely monitoring the situation and assessing any impact to our flights. We advise any customers due to travel to check their flight status at virginatlantic.com.”
US transportation secretary Sean Duffy said the FAA is investigating a communications issue affecting regional air traffic control centres, according to the Associated Press.
It is only the second time flights have been grounded across the US since the September 11 terror attacks in 2001.
Flights were halted by the FAA in January 2023 because of a system error.
US homeland security secretary Markwayne Mullin said: “There is no reason for the public to be afraid or scared for your loved ones. This isn’t another 9/11… This is a telecommunications outage.
“Throughout FAA, out of abundant of caution, we have grounded all the flights, and all the flights are accounted for.
“As incoming flights, either internationally or the flights that are currently still in the air, we’ll be dealing with those case by case.
“As you can imagine, there will be a priority list as they start coming in.”
Mr Mullin added: “Everybody is safe. There is no reason to be concerned about your loved ones if they’re flying or anything like that. I just want to make sure everybody’s at ease about that.”
He went on: “There is no indication as of yet that this was a nefarious attack against us. It’s just a telecommunication outage as of right now.”
Mr Mullin has acknowledged it is “a crisis”.
He said: “Every agency that has an asset that is involved in this… we’re all working together. But that’s what we do, right?
“I don’t want to get to say that this is a crisis but it is because we had to do a nationwide ground stoppage.”
But Mr Mullin added: “It’s what the government works well at.
“That’s what we’re here for, and so we are well positioned and communicating very well.
“The president took a lead in this immediately, and he gave us the assets and the communication to move forward in a fast way.”
Mr Mullin warned it will take “some time” to revolve the issue, adding people should not expect things to be “turned around within the hour”.
“This is going to take some time, but once again, everybody is safe,” he said.
“The flights are accounted for, and there should be no fear to the public at all.”
A spokesperson for American Airlines said: “The FAA has temporarily paused departures nationwide.
“Flights already in the air can continue to their destinations.
“We expect disruption to our schedule for the rest of the day, depending on the length of the FAA’s nationwide ground stop.
“It will be all hands-on deck across American to get customers on their way as soon as possible when the FAA lifts this ground stop.
