Air India flights connecting India with New York, Newark and San Francisco continued to operate without significant delays after a nationwide ground stop disrupted air traffic across the United States, the airline said on Saturday. Flights arriving at the three US airports reached their destinations on time, while departures also operated according to schedule, according to airline officials cited by ANI.
The Tata-owned airline said all its flights to and from the United States were taking off and landing on time despite severe disruption to US air traffic operations. The update is significant for passengers travelling on long-haul India-US routes, where a disruption at US air traffic control centres could affect arrivals, departures, aircraft rotations and crew schedules across multiple airports.
Air India had earlier warned passengers that the US ground stop could cause consequential disruption to its services. It advised travellers to check their flight status before leaving for the airport. The airline’s latest update said its services were continuing without major delays and that passengers were able to proceed with their journeys without significant inconvenience.
The Federal Aviation Administration imposed the nationwide ground stop at about 3:54 pm Eastern Time on Friday, citing extraordinary circumstances and safety concerns. The restriction halted departing flights across the country because of communication failures affecting air traffic control centres. It was lifted at 8:15 pm, after more than four hours.
US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the problem was linked to overloaded communications equipment in the country’s ageing air traffic control infrastructure. The failure affected all 22 air route traffic control centres, which manage aircraft movement between airports. The scale of the disruption meant that an operational recovery was required even after the formal restriction ended.
“Operations are slowly returning to normal this morning. Planes are pushing back, taxiing, and taking off, and it is safe to fly,” Duffy said on Saturday. He added that authorities were coordinating with airlines during the recovery, while warning that passengers could continue to see delays and cancellations as carriers rescheduled flights and repositioned aircraft and crews.
More than 10,000 flights were delayed and thousands were cancelled, while over 1.5 million passengers were affected, according to reports citing flight-tracking data and aviation authorities. Airlines also warned that the disruption could continue into the weekend because aircraft and crew members had been left out of position.
For Air India passengers, the airline’s latest advisory remains that flight status should be checked before travelling to the airport. The carrier said its services to and from the United States were operating as scheduled, while the wider US aviation network continued its recovery after the FAA lifted the ground stop.
