Daijiworld Media Network - Dallas
Dallas, Sep 20: Air travel chaos gripped Dallas on Friday after a major telecommunications outage forced the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to issue emergency ground stops, leading to widespread delays and cancellations at the city's two main airports.
More than 1,800 flights were delayed and hundreds cancelled at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport and Dallas Love Field, severely impacting travel plans for thousands of passengers. The FAA confirmed the issue originated from local telephone company equipment and clarified that the problem was not connected to FAA systems.
In a statement, the agency said it was working with the telecom provider to determine the cause of the failure. As a result of the disruption, the FAA suspended all departures to Dallas-Fort Worth until 11 p.m. ET, and to Dallas Love Field until at least 8:45 p.m.
Data from aviation tracking service FlightAware showed that around 20 per cent of all scheduled flights at Dallas-area airports were cancelled during the outage. Departures were brought to a standstill while communication systems remained offline, paralyzing normal airport operations and affecting flight traffic nationwide.
American Airlines, which has a major hub at Dallas-Fort Worth, was hit hardest. The carrier cancelled more than 200 flights and delayed over 500 others, accounting for nearly a quarter of its entire schedule.
Southwest Airlines, headquartered in Dallas and operating out of Love Field, also faced significant disruption, with over 1,100 flights delayed — roughly 27 per cent of its schedule — leading to a ripple effect across its national network.
The telecommunications failure not only grounded flights locally but also triggered a chain reaction of delays and cancellations across both airlines’ operations in other cities, straining schedules and inconveniencing travelers across the country.
As of late Friday night, the FAA had not yet released a definitive explanation for the outage, and both federal and local authorities continued to assess the full scope of its impact.