© Reuters. Passengers wait for the resumption of flights at O’Hare International Airport after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered airlines to suspend all domestic departures due to a system outage, in Chicago, Illinois, USA. USA, January 11, 2023. REU
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By David Shepardson and Rajesh Kumar Singh
WASHINGTON/CHICAGO (Reuters) – U.S. airlines said they expect operations to return to normal on Thursday as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) struggles to identify the cause of a computer glitch. that grounded flights nationwide and prevent it from happening again.
However, 577 US flights were delayed and 76 canceled as of Thursday morning, according to FlightAware.
More than 11,300 flights were delayed or canceled Wednesday in the first national grounding of domestic traffic in some two decades.
Major carriers including Delta Air Lines (NYSE:), United Airlines, American Airlines (NASDAQ:) Group Inc and Southwest Airlines (NYSE:) said they expected normal operations on Thursday.
Shares of American Airlines reversed course to trade higher by about 5% before trading after forecasting higher fourth-quarter profit, sending shares of rivals United, Southwest and Delta up between 1 % and 3%.
The FAA computer glitch prevented airports from putting out updated safety advisories warning pilots of potential dangers, such as runway closures, equipment outages and construction, temporarily halting flights.
FAA officials said a preliminary review traced the issue to a corrupted database file, but added there was no evidence of a cyberattack and the investigation was continuing.
The same file corrupted both the main system and its backup, said people familiar with the patch, who asked not to be named.
US Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, a Democrat, said the panel would investigate. Republican Sen. Ted Cruz called the failure “completely unacceptable.”
“FAA modernization will be expensive and will be paid for through a combination of air travel taxes that affect all airlines and the efficiency of the largest airlines,” the Bernstein brokerage said in a note.
Arjun Garg, a former FAA senior counsel and acting deputy administrator, said it was premature to draw any conclusions about the event, but the agency was right to cancel flights if a safety system was not operational.
Garg, now a partner at the law firm Hogan Lovells, said the incident was a reminder that the FAA was bound by an annual allocation cycle, making it difficult to plan and execute major multi-year projects, such as control upgrades. of air traffic.
“The health of that agency and its ability to fulfill its mission is really important,” he said in an interview. “It’s a high-profile affair.”
The FAA has been without a permanent administrator since March. The Senate has not held a hearing on President Joe Biden’s choice to head the agency, Denver International Airport CEO Phil Washington, who was re-elected last week.
