On September 24, 2026, the FAA held 14 airports in the United States under 21 distinct delay programs. Boston Logan International Airport (BOS) was the worst-hit, experiencing peak delays reaching up to 390 minutes under a ground delay program.
Delay Program Overview and Airport Impact
Delay programs on this date included 6 ground stop programs, 5 ground delay programs, and 10 general arrival or departure delay information advisories. A ground stop holds departures at their origin for flights destined to an affected airport, while a ground delay program meters arrivals by assigning later departure times.
Boston Logan International (BOS) operated under a ground delay program caused by runway construction for a continuous 22 hours, with an observed peak average delay of 127 minutes. Seattle-Tacoma International (SEA) also experienced runway construction delays during an approximately 2 hour 20 minute ground delay program, peaking at 36 minutes
on average.
San Diego International (SAN) and Newark Liberty International (EWR) had ground delay programs related to airport volume, lasting 4 hours 20 minutes and 1 hour respectively, with peak average delays of 30 and 35 minutes. Denver International (DEN) saw a short 20-minute ground delay program for “other” reasons with a peak average delay of 42 minutes.
Ground stops were issued at several airports, each lasting around 20 minutes, including Phoenix Sky Harbor International (PHX) due to thunderstorms, Boston Logan due to runway construction, and Austin (AUS) for airspace volume. The highest number of samples for a ground stop
program was 3 at ASE, which faced airport volume issues.
| Airport | FAA programme | Cause | Peak average delay | In force (UTC) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ASE | Ground Stop Programs | airport volume | – | 21:20 to 22:00 (40 minutes) |
| Phoenix Sky Harbor International (PHX) | Ground Stop Programs | thunderstorms | – | 14:00 to 14:20 (20 minutes) |
| San Diego International (SAN) | Ground Stop Programs | airport volume | – | 17:20 to 17:20 (20 minutes) |
| Boston Logan International (BOS) | Ground Stop Programs | runway construction | – | 17:40 to 17:40 (20 minutes) |
| AUS | Ground Stop Programs | airspace volume | – | 18:00 to 18:20 (20 minutes) |
| Newark Liberty International (EWR) | Ground Stop Programs | airport volume | – | 20:20 to 20:40 (20 minutes) |
| Boston Logan International (BOS) | Ground Delay Programs | runway construction | 127 min | 00:00 to 22:00 (22 hours) |
| Denver International (DEN) | Ground Delay Programs | other | 42 min | 21:40 to 22:00 (20 minutes) |
| Seattle-Tacoma International (SEA) | Ground Delay Programs | runway construction | 36 min | 00:20 to 02:40 (2 hours 20 minutes) |
| Newark Liberty International (EWR) | Ground Delay Programs | airport volume | 35 min | 21:00 to 22:00 (1 hour) |
| San Diego International (SAN) | Ground Delay Programs | airport volume | 30 min | 17:40 to 22:00 (4 hours 20 minutes) |
| TEB | General Arrival/Departure Delay Info | VOL:Volume; VOL:INDIVIDUAL RELEASES | 91 min | 00:00 to 22:00 (22 hours) |
| LaGuardia (LGA) | General Arrival/Departure Delay Info | TM Initiatives:Metering:VOL | 61 min | 00:40 to 01:40 (1 hour) |
| Phoenix Sky Harbor International (PHX) | General Arrival/Departure Delay Info | WX:Thunderstorms | 46 min | 14:40 to 19:20 (4 hours 40 minutes) |
Causes Driving Delay Programs on September 24
Runway construction was the cause behind the most delay programs, accounting for 42 occurrences, including major impacts at Boston Logan, Seattle-Tacoma, and San Francisco International (SFO). Thunderstorms triggered 24 delay programs, notably affecting Phoenix Sky Harbor and Dallas/Fort Worth International (DFW).
Airport volume issues also contributed significantly with 24 delay incidents, with ASE, San Diego, Newark, and others impacted. The FAA further reported airspace volume, weather, and specific runway construction subcategories like RWY:Construction in delays.
Other specific reasons included volume-related metering initiatives at LaGuardia (LGA) and multi-taxi volume delays at
Chicago O’Hare International (ORD). Some airports had unique combined volume-related causes such as Teterboro (TEB), affected over 22 hours by volume and individual release measures causing peak average delays of 91 minutes.
Trends Compared to Previous Data
Compared to September 23, 2026, when 20 airports were impacted by 25 delay programs, September 24 saw a decline of 6 fewer delay programs and 6 fewer airports affected. The current day’s numbers also fall below the recent 7-day average of 17.4 airports dealing with delay programs.
While Boston Logan led with the highest peak delays during the day, the overall figures indicate somewhat lighter nationwide disruption than
the previous day but still substantial delays at key airports.
Methodology. travelandtournews.com samples the FAA’s National Airspace System status feed every 20 minutes throughout the US operating day and aggregates the result. This report is built from 66 samples taken between 00:00 and 22:00 UTC on 2026-09-24. Durations are the observed window between the first and last sample in which a programme was in force, so a programme’s true length may be slightly longer than shown. Ground stops, ground delay programmes, airport closures and general delays are all published by the FAA in real time; the daily aggregation is ours.
