The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered a nationwide ground stop on all flights beginning at roughly 2200 UTC on November 13, 2026, due to communications failures in regional air traffic control centers. The halt lasted about four hours and was issued “due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety,” marking the longest US air traffic shutdown since the 9/11 attacks in 2001.
London Heathrow Airport reported 31 cancelled flights and approximately 20 delayed departures to and from the US as of 9:45am on November 14. Gatwick Airport saw three inbound flights from Orlando, Florida scheduled for 7:30am on
November 14 cancelled. Several flights to and from the US were also cancelled at Manchester Airport. These cancellations and delays persisted into November 15, affecting transatlantic travel at major UK hubs.
Eurocontrol suspended all US-bound departures from its 42 member states, including the UK, Ireland, Germany, and France, from 2200 UTC on November 13 until 0500 UTC on November 14. The Network Manager Operations Centre (NMOC) monitored the disruption and provided updates throughout the incident.
The UK Civil Aviation Authority’s consumer director Tim Johnson advised passengers on November 14 to verify flight statuses as airlines worked to rebook affected travelers
and warned of continued follow-on disruption. He confirmed UK carriers were making efforts to reduce inconvenience and support customers during this ongoing recovery period.
US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy acknowledged the unanticipated outage but confirmed the system was rebooted after failure. “We were able to review what went wrong, and then reboot the system and go. But, you will have more of these,” he said. US Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin emphasized the issue was a telecommunications outage overwhelming older air traffic control systems with new technology, adding there was “no indication” of cyberattack or AI involvement. Mullin reassured that
all flights are accounted for and safe.
British Airways cancelled a London Heathrow to New York flight scheduled for 10:30pm on November 13. A spokesperson urged customers to “travel to the airport as planned” despite potential delays, attributing the disruption as “entirely outside of our control.” Virgin Atlantic cancelled a London Heathrow to New York JFK flight scheduled for November 13 and advised travelers to check flight status on its website while monitoring the FAA ground stop impact.
This is the longest US air traffic shutdown since 2001, following a prior nationwide grounding by the FAA in January 2023 caused
by a system error. The November 2026 disruption highlighted vulnerabilities in US air traffic control infrastructure and led to coordinated suspension of US-bound flights across Europe by Eurocontrol.
