FAA system outage causes flight delays across U.S.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is experiencing a system outage causing hundreds of flight delays across the U.S. on Wednesday.

According to the flight tracking website FlightAware, over 1,200 flights have been delayed and 100 have been canceled at 7 a.m. today due to the power outage in the FAA.

The East Coast area is experiencing most of the delays, but it is starting to spread west.

The FAA tweeted that it would provide frequent updates as it made progress.

The agency released the fourth update of the day stating that they are making progress in restoring its systems.

Departures are resuming at two airports due to air traffic within those areas. The FAA expect departures to resume at other airport at 9 a.m.

Update 4: The FAA is making progress in restoring its Notice to Air Missions system following an overnight outage. Departures are resuming at @EWRairport and @ATLairport due to air traffic congestion in those areas. We expect departures to resume at other airports at 9 a.m. ET.

— The FAA ✈️ (@FAANews) January 11, 2023

Airlines have started to delay flights in response to the outage.

I have been in touch with FAA this morning about an outage affecting a key system for providing safety information to pilots. FAA is working to resolve this issue swiftly and safely so that air traffic can resume normal operations, and will continue to provide updates.

— Secretary Pete Buttigieg (@SecretaryPete) January 11, 2023

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg tweeted that he is in touch with the FAA and monitoring the situation.

There is a chance for widespread disruption due to the outage because all the aircrafts are required to route through the system, including military and commercial flights.