When will flights be back to normal after nationwide ground stop?

Some flights had resumed as of Saturday morning, but many passengers remained stranded.

The Details

Some flights had resumed as of Saturday morning, but many passengers remained stranded.

Stranded travelers were still trying to get home on Saturday morning after the longest nationwide ground stop in 25 years snarled air travel, affecting thousands of flights.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy wrote in a social media post on Saturday that operations were "slowly returning to normal" after the Federal Aviation Administration lifted the ground stop on Friday night.

"Planes are pushing back, taxiing, and taking off, and it is safe to fly," Duffy wrote. "You will continue to see some delays and cancellations as carriers reschedule flights and reposition aircraft/crews where they are needed most."

Duffy told reporters during a press conference on Friday night that he expects to be "back up and operational" by the Thanksgiving travel rush.

FAA ground stop raises questions after rollout of new AI air-traffic system Why was there a ground stop?

The Trump administration said the pause was ordered out of an abundance of caution and no lives were at risk.

Officials blamed "intermittent" communications and radar gaps for the disruption. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said new technology being added to the nation's air traffic control system appeared to overwhelm older parts of the system.

'People in tears': Travelers around the country react after rare FAA nationwide ground stop Duffy and Mullin urged Congress to provide more money to finish modernizing the outdated infrastructure. They warned, without further action, something like this could happen again.

Mullin said there was no indication of a cyberattack as of Friday night, but didn't rule it out, as officials were still investigating the outage.

Duffy said the issue was not caused by the rollout of a new AI-powered system called SMART (Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes and Trajectories), comments echoed by the company that designed the system on social media.

Are the Microsoft Outlook outage and FAA ground stop connected?

What can stranded passengers do?

If your flight gets cancelled, airlines owe you a full cash refund if you choose not to rebook, according to Brian Kelly, the founder of The Points Guy.

"Do not let them give you a voucher. By law, they have to give you a refund if you choose not to take the flight they try to re-accommodate you on," Kelly said.

The bad news for travelers is that airlines aren't required to pay you back for additional travel expenses in this case.

"This would not be what's considered a controllable cancellation, meaning it's not the airline's fault, and so in the vast majority of cases, people would not get reimbursed for hotel expenses, rental cars, food vouchers, parking fees, or any other kinds of expenses. It doesn't hurt to ask," said Teresa Murray, consumer watchdog director for the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG).

What are your options, rights after Friday's FAA ground stop?

Kelly said travel insurance should pay for those costs, while others may be eligible for relief through certain travel credit cards with trip delay and cancellation coverage.

"Some credit card companies will exclude FAA mass shutdowns and some won't," Kelly said. "My best tip: keep all your receipts, submit them to your credit card company, let them decide. Don't try to read the policy...and hope for the best."

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