Air travel disruptions across the United States have continued for the third consecutive day, with more than 5,200 flights cancelled or delayed as of Sunday.
However, US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has predicted that air traffic will return to normal by Monday, as airlines work to restore regular schedules following widespread flight disruptions.
According to data from the FlightAware platform, more than 1,600 flights were cancelled nationwide on Sunday, while nearly 3,600 others were delayed. A day earlier, airlines had cancelled more than 6,400 flights and recorded over 8,000 delays.
Speaking on ABC’s “This Week” programme, Duffy said there was no evidence of a cyberattack or any other malicious activity, although the exact cause of the disruption had yet to be determined.
He said flight operations were expected to begin returning to normal on Sunday, with a full recovery anticipated by Monday. Duffy stressed that passenger safety remained the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) top priority.
On Sunday, 27 per cent of JetBlue flights and 13 per cent of American Airlines flights were cancelled. Meanwhile, Southwest, United Airlines and Delta reported cancellations affecting between 3 and 5 per cent of their flights.
On Friday, the FAA ordered a nationwide ground stop, suspending almost all departures for approximately five hours. It was the longest disruption to US air traffic since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
According to officials, the installation of at least one new router by FAA contractor L3Harris at a remote facility caused other air traffic control centres to become overwhelmed by a massive volume of data, disrupting the operation of communication systems.
Duffy explained that replacing a router at an FAA facility in El Dorado, Arkansas, triggered problems with another router that had recently been replaced in Amarillo, Texas. The latter began transmitting data in a way that overloaded routers at air traffic control centres across the country.
On Sunday, the FAA announced that it had disabled the routers responsible for the disruption and had taken the same precautionary measure with approximately 60 similar devices within the air traffic control system.
Nevertheless, Duffy said authorities had still not determined the ultimate cause of the malfunction, despite similar maintenance work having been carried out thousands of times in the past without causing any problems.
He described the technician who had installed the router as an experienced veteran and, in their assessment, an American patriot, adding that they did not believe the installation had been deliberately carried out to sabotage the network.
“But we have not yet identified the root cause of the problem,” Duffy said.
Friday’s disruption represents the latest and most serious indication of the challenges facing the US air traffic control system. The system is burdened by outdated technology, equipment and communication problems, as well as a shortage of several thousand air traffic controllers.
Duffy said the routers that malfunctioned had been purchased in 2001 and had been beyond their recommended service life since 2006.
Following the disruption, he requested $50 billion in funding to modernise the air traffic control system, increasing his previous request of $30 billion. This comes after Congress approved $12.5 billion for the same purpose last year.
Trump Calls for Additional Funding
US President Donald Trump also publicly addressed the air traffic problems for the first time on Sunday, calling on American lawmakers to approve additional funding.
“We have already started the work, but it needs to be completed all at once, not piece by piece. Congress must approve it,” Trump wrote on social media.
Democrats are expected to take control of Congress in January, following the results of the November 3 midterm elections, in which they gained additional seats.
Meanwhile, Duffy’s request for additional funding has been met with scepticism by Democratic Representatives Rick Larsen and André Carson, the leading Democrats on the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and its Subcommittee on Aviation, respectively.
