Another week, another meltdown – this time you cant blame airlines

WASHINGTON Frequent flyers know that feeling well, particularly as air travel has roared back from pandemic lows: Their flight has been delayed, and then they receive little information about when or if it will take off, stoking feelings of anger and hopelessness.

But the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) system failure that caused more than 9,000 delays on Wednesday led to a slightly different dynamic for the frustrated passengers: This time, they didnt have the airline to blame.

Because it was a systemwide, nationwide thing, there was nowhere to direct your outrage, so everybody was being really helpful, said Ms Jess McIntosh, a political consultant whose American Airlines flight was delayed in Albany, New York. And nobody was yelling at the TSA agents.

The outage that halted takeoffs for about 90 minutes on Wednesday morning was caused by the failure of a system that the FAA uses to send timely safety alerts to pilots. Flights began to resume around 9am, the FAA said, but the effects continued to snarl air traffic throughout the day.

Mr Paul Hudson, president of FlyersRights.org, which represents airline consumers, called the shutdown shocking and potentially avoidable.

The fact that this could happen at all shows the real vulnerabilities to the computer system that the FAA operates, he said.

The FAA said it was still investigating the cause of the disruption to the Notam short for Notice to Air Mission alert system. There was no evidence of a cyberattack, said Ms Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary.

Mr Hudson said while the cause of the disruption is still unknown, it was clear that the FAA needs to update its computer system and conduct more stress tests, such as drills conducted at airports and by airlines to prepare for emergencies.

In terminals across the United States, just weeks after mass cancellations by Southwest Airlines left thousands of travellers stranded, many passengers were sanguine about yet another chaotic day for air travel.

Ms Bettina Incln, who was travelling to Houston from Washington, said her United pilot kept everyone on her delayed flight informed and calm.

The entire United team did really well in setting expectations, being honest on what they knew and didnt know, and what it all meant, she said.

As Ms Sara Hole, of Stamford, Connecticut, and her fiance, Mr Drew Tomlinson, waited by their gate at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey on Wednesday morning, they got the impression that the American Airlines staff members were just as confused as the passengers.

Over the intercom, an airline representative told them there was an FAA system outage, but there were few other details.

They have emphasised that they have all of the same information that we do, Ms Hole said. Passengers wait at OHare International Airport after the FAA had ordered airlines to pause all domestic departures due to a system outage, in Chicago, on Jan 11. PHOTO: REUTERS Some of the passengers may have been accommodating, but their plans were no less ruined. Ms McIntosh, who left for the airport at 4.30am to catch a flight to Raleigh, North Carolina, for a business meeting, eventually went back home when she realised she was going to miss most of it.

Ms Incln had to rearrange several meetings, and Ms Hole said she and her fiance would probably miss their connecting flight in Phoenix, disrupting their planned hiking trip in Utah for Mr Tomlinsons birthday.

The fact that the disruption came from the FAA and not an airline dealing with overbooked flights may explain why many passengers were not as outraged as they might have been, said Mr Mike Arnot, an industry analyst.

Safety first, and thats the right call, he said. By and large, this will be hopefully forgotten by most of the travelling public soon. NYTIMES More On This Topic Airlines expect US operations to rebound on Thursday as FAA investigates outage Flight departures resume in US after FAA lifts ground stop