Air India said its flights to and from the United States operated as scheduled without significant delays, despite a nationwide ground stop imposed by the US Federal Aviation Administration after communications problems disrupted regional air traffic control centres.
The Tata Group-owned airline said flights bound for New York, Newark and San Francisco landed on time early Saturday morning. Departures from the three airports were also completed without significant delays, according to a statement issued by the carrier.
The disruption followed an FAA decision to ground all flights nationwide from Friday afternoon. The agency said the ground stop was imposed because of extraordinary circumstances and safety concerns linked to communications problems at regional air traffic control centres.
More than 2,500 flights were cancelled in the US on Saturday, while hundreds more were delayed, according to FlightAware, a flight disruption tracking website. The scale of the disruption affected airports and air traffic operations across the country, although Air India said its scheduled services remained largely unaffected.
“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.
Air India is currently the sole domestic airline operating flight services to and from the US, giving its operations a direct bearing on passengers travelling between India and American destinations. The airline’s statement covered services involving New York, Newark and San Francisco, which are among the US gateways served by its network.
The incident also highlighted the dependence of long-haul international travel on air traffic control communications and coordination beyond an airline’s direct operational control. While Air India reported no significant delays on its identified services, the FAA ground stop demonstrated how failures at air traffic control centres can quickly affect airport operations and passenger schedules across a national aviation system.
The FAA’s ground stop remained the central operational measure reported in connection with the disruption. Air India’s statement did not indicate any change to its scheduled US services or announce additional cancellations. The airline said its flights would continue to operate as scheduled.
