Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned that the US faces further nationwide flight ground stops unless Congress approves additional funding to replace decades old analog air traffic control equipment, urging lawmakers to pass the Modern Skies Act. United Airlines began restoring flight operations after the Federal Aviation Administration said it thoroughly tested its systems to confirm they were stable and reliable following the four hour halt.
The FAA lifted the nationwide ground stop at 8:15 p.m. ET Friday after an outage that disrupted more than 13,500 flights, including over 5,000 cancellations and 10,000 delays, and prompted Delta Air Lines and Southwest Airlines to resume flights earlier in the evening. During a White House briefing, Duffy raised his funding request for a system overhaul to $50 billion from $30 billion, on top of $12.5 billion approved in last year’s reconciliation bill.
