On November 13, 2026, a nationwide ground stop ordered by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) around 3 p.m. Pacific Time caused widespread flight cancellations and delays at Vancouver International Airport (YVR). The FAA halted all flights in U.S. airspace due to a temporary telecommunications outage affecting air traffic control communications.
Flight Disruptions at Vancouver International Airport
The ground stop directly impacted flights departing YVR bound for U.S. cities including San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, Dallas, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and Minneapolis. By approximately 4 p.m. Pacific Time, several U.S.-bound flights were delayed, and flights to Phoenix, Seattle, and San Francisco were cancelled. All arriving flights from the
U.S. not airborne at the time of the announcement faced delays. Initially, YVR reported no disruption to domestic Canadian flights but later highlighted possible delays and cancellations affecting some domestic and international routes beyond U.S. destinations as airlines adjusted operations.
Airline Responses and Canadian Airspace Operations
Air Canada cancelled all flights to and from the U.S. for the remainder of the evening and warned that disruptions could continue through the weekend. Porter Airlines issued similar cancellations and requested that travelers verify flight statuses before arriving at the airport. WestJet also advised passengers to check flight updates amid the disruptions. Nav Canada confirmed normal operation of its
air traffic control systems and stated there was no impact on Canadian airspace management during the FAA’s ground stop.
Cause and Continuing Impact
The FAA attributed the ground stop to a failure in its decades-old analog air traffic control communication infrastructure. Sean Duffy, U.S. Secretary of Transportation, characterized the outage as an unprecedented event tied to legacy network vulnerabilities and noted that technicians were investigating the issue. The ground stop was lifted just before 7 p.m. Pacific Time, allowing U.S. flights to resume departure, but Air Canada and Porter Airlines indicated flight delays and cancellations would persist into the weekend as schedules normalize.
Flight
tracking service FlightRadar24 recorded more than 150 delayed flights and 69 cancellations at Vancouver International Airport as of 7 p.m. Pacific Time on November 13. The FAA’s air traffic control communications disruption initially affected Chicago Midway airport and cascaded nationwide, reflecting the interdependence of Canadian and U.S. aviation systems. Similar FAA ground stops have occurred rarely, most recently in January 2023 and, historically, on September 11, 2001.
Vancouver International Airport stated, “YVR is aware of a nationwide technology issue in the United States that has caused a ground stop for all flights to the United States at this time.” Sean
Duffy commented, “It’s an old system that went down, and went down everywhere. It got overloaded … our fix gives us a pretty good indication that it was a legacy network problem.” He also quipped, “Welcome to Friday the 13th.”
