Travelers at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport continued to see flight disruptions Saturday morning, Nov. 14, as airlines worked to recover from the nationwide Federal Aviation Administration ground stop that snarled air travel across the country on Friday, The Cincinnati Enquirer reported.
As of early Saturday morning, flight-tracking service FlightAware reported 28 cancellations and 11 delays at CVG, The Cincinnati Enquirer reported. More departures than arrivals appeared to be canceled on the CVG online flight status dashboard, the Enquirer reported.
A notice posted on the airport’s website states, "The FAA has lifted its nationwide ground stop. As impacts continue, travelers are encouraged to check flight status with their airlines before coming to the airport," The Cincinnati Enquirer reported.
The local disruptions came as airlines dealt with a much larger backlog nationwide. More than 3,000 U.S. flights had been canceled and nearly 1,000 delayed by about 5:45 a.m. Saturday, according to FlightAware data reported by CNBC and carried in The Cincinnati Enquirer’s report, which noted that USA TODAY contributed.
The problems followed an unusual nationwide ground stop on Friday, Nov. 13, that prevented flights from departing U.S. airports for more than four hours, the Enquirer reported. Homeland Security and Transportation Department officials blamed aging and overloaded air traffic control technology being patched with new technology, the Enquirer reported, and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the FAA telecommunications system failed as patches were being made to aging technology, according to the Enquirer.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said it will take some time to get flights back to capacity, but he did not have a timeframe for when flight schedules will return to normal, the Enquirer reported. "We’re going to have some makeup to do," Duffy said, according to The Cincinnati Enquirer.
The timing matters for the region: the days leading up to Thanksgiving, which falls on Nov. 26 this year, are typically some of the busiest travel days of the year, the Enquirer noted. Duffy said he thinks the system will be back up and operational as the Thanksgiving travel rush arrives, according to the Enquirer.
What happens next: CVG’s own advice to travelers Saturday is to check flight status with their airline before coming to the airport, as cancellations and delays continue while airlines clear Friday’s backlog.