On August 20, 2026, flights entering, departing, or flying over Minnesota and nine additional Midwest states were diverted or held on the ground following a system outage at a Minneapolis air traffic control facility, the Federal Aviation Administration confirmed.
Affected Midwest Region and Control Facility
The outage impacted air traffic operations across a 330,000 square mile area managed by the Minneapolis air traffic control facility. In addition to Minnesota, the states affected included Michigan, Kansas, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Wisconsin.
Flight Delays and Ongoing Disruptions
Delays averaged 90 minutes at Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport on the evening of August 20. Flight delays were anticipated to continue into the
evening across multiple regional airports within the affected states.
Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport itself was not the site of the technical failure but experienced substantial delays due to the broader air traffic disruptions.
The system outage involved radar and air traffic control systems critical to managing the flow of aircraft. These systems were restored later on August 20; however, significant disruptions persisted at various airports throughout the region.
