FAA Ground Stop Halts All US Departures for Over Four Hours

The Federal Aviation Administration halted every departure from US airports for more than four hours on November 13, 2026, after communication failures disrupted air traffic control centers nationwide. The order, the third nationwide ground stop in US history, began at 3:54 p.m. ET with more than 4,000 flights already airborne and headed for US airports.

NBC News reported the FAA acted under what it described as "extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety." Officials said there was no indication of a malicious attack. Incoming international flights were handled case by case, but domestic departures stopped cold.

Chicago felt it first. Just before the nationwide order, the FAA had already placed both O'Hare and Midway under local ground stops as the communication problems spread.

What does the lift mean for sellers?

The FAA lifted the stop late Friday night, but the operational bill lands on airlines, agencies and corporate travel desks for days. Carriers must reposition aircraft and crews, and analysts of past disruptions know the pattern: after the 2023 stop, delays and cancellations persisted long after departures resumed. Sellers of travel should expect rebooking volume, waiver-driven reaccommodation and refund exposure through the weekend.

A ground stop (an FAA order suspending departures at one or more airports for safety) at national scale is structurally rare. Before November 13, 2026, the US had recorded only two.

• September 11, 2001 — the first, ordered at 9:25 a.m. ET after the terrorist attacks. At 9:45 a.m. the FAA ordered all airborne aircraft, roughly 4,500 of them, to land at the nearest airport. By 12:15 p.m. the airspace over the 48 contiguous states was clear of all commercial and private flights. Commercial airspace reopened at 11 a.m. ET on September 13 under heightened security restrictions.
• January 11, 2023 — the FAA's Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system, which distributes safety notices to pilots, failed overnight. The ground stop lasted under two hours but was not lifted until shortly after 9 a.m., and airlines absorbed delays and cancellations long afterward.
• November 13, 2026 — communication problems at air traffic control centers nationwide, no indication of a malicious attack, lifted after more than four hours.

How does 2026 compare?

Like 2023, the 2026 stop stemmed from a technical fault and was imposed as a precaution. Unlike 2023, it ran more than twice as long — over four hours versus under two — across the entire national departure bank rather than an overnight, low-frequency window. That asymmetry matters for revenue: a late-afternoon stop hits peak departure waves at major hubs, compounding crew-positioning and slot-recovery costs.

The National Air and Space Museum hosts video of the 2001 airspace clearing on its official website, a record of how quickly a national system can empty.

Airlines and their distribution partners now work through the backlog. Officials continue to attribute the failure to communication problems, with no malicious cause indicated, and further delays and cancellations remain likely as operations normalize.