Air India flights to New York, Newark and San Francisco running on schedule despite nationwide aviation disruption

Air India said on Saturday that its flights connecting India with the United States have continued to operate without significant delays, even as a rare nationwide aviation disruption threw air travel into disarray across the US. ANI reported, citing airline officials, that all flights en route to New York, Newark and San Francisco reached their destinations on time early Saturday.

Departures from the three US airports also operated according to schedule, with no major delays reported.

"All Air India flights to and from the United States are operating as per schedule without any significant delays, despite severe air traffic disruptions caused by a nationwide ground stop in the US since last night," reported ANI.


The Tata-owned airline said its flights were taking off and landing on time, allowing passengers to continue their journeys without inconvenience despite the disruption affecting air traffic operations across the US.

"Departures from these three US airports also operated on schedule without any major delays. All Air India flights are taking off and landing on time without causing any inconvenience to passengers," the officials further said, according to the news agency.

Air India had earlier issued a travel advisory warning passengers that the nationwide ground stop could lead to consequential disruptions to its US services. The airline had urged travellers to check their flight status before leaving for the airport.


The update comes after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) imposed a nationwide ground stop on Friday, halting departing flights across the country because of communication failures affecting air traffic control centres.

Although the restriction was lifted later that evening, the disruption left airlines scrambling to restore normal schedules.

FAA lifts ground stop, but disruption continues across US airports

The FAA issued the ground stop at around 3:54 pm Eastern Time on Friday, citing extraordinary circumstances and safety concerns. The order was lifted at 8:15 pm, after more than four hours of disruption.

US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy attributed the problem to overloaded communications equipment in the country's ageing air traffic control infrastructure. The failure affected all 22 air route traffic control centres, which manage aircraft movement between airports.

"Operations are slowly returning to normal this morning. Planes are pushing back, taxiing, and taking off, and it is safe to fly. We are in close coordination with the airlines to support the ongoing recovery. You will continue to see some delays and cancellations as carriers reschedule flights and reposition aircraft/crews where they are needed most," Duffy said on Saturday.

The scale of the disruption was significant.

More than 10,000 flights were delayed and thousands were cancelled, while over 1.5 million passengers were affected, according to reports citing flight-tracking data and aviation authorities.

Airlines warned that the effects could extend into the weekend as aircraft and crew members were left out of position.

According to a Bloomberg report, this marked the "longest nationwide flight suspension since the September 2001 terrorist attacks."