Air India said its flights to and from the United States operated as scheduled without significant delays, despite a nationwide ground stop imposed after communications problems affected regional air traffic control centres.
The airline said flights bound for New York, Newark and San Francisco landed on time early Saturday morning. Departures from the three US airports were also reported to be on schedule, according to a statement issued by Air India.
“All our flights to and from the US have been operating as per schedule without any significant delay in spite of air traffic getting severely impacted due to the nationwide ground stop in the USA since last night,” the airline said.
The statement followed action by the US Federal Aviation Administration on Friday afternoon to ground flights nationwide. The FAA said the ground stop was imposed because of extraordinary circumstances and safety concerns linked to communications problems at regional air traffic control centres.
The disruption affected a large part of the US aviation network. More than 2,500 flights were cancelled on Saturday and hundreds more were delayed, according to FlightAware, a flight-disruption tracking website. The scale of the cancellations highlighted the operational consequences of failures or interruptions in air traffic control communications, even when individual airlines continue to maintain scheduled services.
For passengers travelling between India and the US, the status of Air India’s services meant that the airline’s reported operations at the affected airports remained stable during the disruption. The update covered both incoming and outgoing flights, including services involving New York, Newark and San Francisco.
Air India is owned by the Tata Group and was described in the report as the sole domestic airline operating flight services to and from the United States. Its network therefore provides a significant direct connection between Indian passengers and major US gateways, although the airline’s statement addressed its own scheduled services and did not indicate that the wider disruption had ended.
The FAA ground stop and the resulting cancellations were connected to air traffic control communications, rather than an operational disruption announced by Air India. The airline’s update did not provide details about the communications problem, the duration of the FAA action or any broader impact on future flights.
Air India said its services had continued without significant delays and that flights from the three named airports were operating on time. Further flight conditions would depend on the status of the US air traffic control network and any subsequent instructions from the FAA.
