Stranded Planes, Exhausted Pilots, 3,000 Cancellations: Why US Flight Chaos Won’t End Soon

Flights across the US were grounded on Friday.

Flights across the United States continued to face widespread disruption on Saturday, a day after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered a rare nationwide ground stop that brought air traffic to a near standstill. Although the restrictions were lifted on Friday evening, airlines struggled to restore normal operations, cancelling thousands of flights as they worked to reorganise schedules, reposition aircraft and arrange replacement crews.

By Saturday morning, almost 15% of the day's scheduled flights had already been cancelled, with the figure continuing to rise. At least 3,000 flights scheduled for Saturday were eventually cancelled, according to aviation data firm Cirium.

The disruption is expected to take several days to clear because of the complex coordination required to keep airline operations running.

Why Is It Taking So Long For US Flights To Return To Normal?

Airline operations depend on several moving parts working together, including the availability of aircraft, pilots, cabin crew and airport gates.

The nationwide ground stop on Friday disrupted this carefully coordinated system, leaving thousands of aircraft stranded on the ground. Many planes returned to the airports from which they had departed, according to Cirium, putting additional pressure on already…

Original source: https://www.timesnownews.com/world