Thanksgiving Gridlock: FAA Pauses Flights At Major Airports As Travel Surge Hits Peak

• According to a Bloomberg News report, the FAA issued brief ground stops at New York’s LaGuardia and New Jersey’s Newark airport, two of the busiest in the country.
• The FAA already issued a ground stop order at O'Hare on Wednesday morning due to snowfall in the area.
• Further snowfall in large swathes of the country could spoil travel plans over the weekend.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration issued ground stop orders at several airports late on Wednesday as U.S. airlines continued to grapple with the busiest Thanksgiving travel period in recent years.

According to a Bloomberg News report, the FAA issued brief ground stops at New York’s LaGuardia and New Jersey’s Newark airport, two of the busiest in the country, that have since been lifted. The U.S. regulator also issued a ground stop for John F. Kennedy International Airport, which lasted between 6.45 p.m. to 8.30 p.m. local time.

FAA’s National Airspace System Status showed that departures from Harry Reid International, which serves Las Vegas, will be delayed by 60 minutes on average, while there was a ground stop order at the Chicago O’Hare International Airport.

The FAA already issued a ground stop order at O'Hare on Wednesday morning due to snowfall in the area. According to FlightAware data, 61% of flights scheduled for the day were delayed at one of the country's busiest airports.

Record Number Of Travelers

The FAA earlier projected the current Thanksgiving holiday travel period to be the busiest in 15 years, and added that it was prepared to “get more than 360,000 flights” to their destinations. Airlines for America, a lobbying group for U.S. airlines, projected that airlines will fly 2.8 million passengers per day between Nov. 21 and Dec. 1.

However, inclement weather could spoil travelers’ plans this weekend. “Heavy snow is projected from southeastern South Dakota through Iowa, southern Minnesota, northwestern Illinois, and southern and central Wisconsin into the central and northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan,” AccuWeather stated.

Retail sentiment on Stocktwits about Delta Air Lines was in the ‘bearish’ territory, while traders were ‘neutral’ about United Airlines and Southwest Airlines, and ‘bullish’ on American Airlines.

Most of these carriers have seen thousands of cancellations at the beginning of the month due to staff shortages at airports stemming from the federal government shutdown. Greg Raiff, CEO of the Elevate Aviation Group, warned earlier that airlines lost hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue each day during the shutdown.

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