Air travel disruptions continued across the United States on Sunday as airlines worked to restore normal schedules following Friday’s nationwide flight shutdown, with federal officials predicting a full recovery by Monday.
More than 1,600 flights were canceled and nearly 3,600 delayed nationwide Sunday, according to flight-tracking service FlightAware.
At St. Louis Lambert International Airport, 86 flights had been canceled and 108 delayed Sunday morning, according to FlightAware. The airport was no longer under an FAA ground stop, but travelers continued facing disruptions.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Sunday that flights should return largely to normal by Monday as airlines worked to reposition aircraft and crews displaced by Friday’s shutdown.
The Federal Aviation Administration halted departures nationwide for nearly five hours Friday after a telecommunications malfunction disrupted air traffic control communications and radar systems. Flights resumed that evening, but thousands were canceled over the following two days.
Federal officials said the trouble began during equipment upgrades by contractor L3Harris, which was replacing aging copper communications lines with fiber optic cable.
The FAA identified facilities in El Dorado, Arkansas, and Amarillo, Texas, as potential sources of excessive data traffic that overwhelmed the system, affecting 17 of the nation’s 22 air traffic control centers.
Investigators have not determined whether faulty equipment or installation errors caused the breakdown. Officials found no evidence of a cyberattack.
As a precaution, the FAA disabled certain functions on approximately 60 similar routers. The agency said all aircraft landed safely during the emergency.
The disruption renewed concerns about the nation’s aging air traffic control infrastructure. Duffy is seeking $50 billion in additional funding from Congress to modernize the nation’s aging air traffic control system.
“We have to get off old network, old telecom,” Duffy said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
The FAA and L3Harris are continuing their investigation, including whether maintenance procedures should change to prevent another nationwide shutdown.