Further delays to US flights expected after FAA issue

Normal air traffic operations are slowly resuming in the US after flights were halted on Wednesday, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said.

It follows a problem with the system that alerts pilots to potential hazards on flight routes.

The FAA had said flights would begin to take off again from 0900 ET (1400 GMT), though further delays are expected due to a backlog of flights.

Airports nationwide were affected, from Denver to Atlanta to New York City.

As of Wednesday morning east coast time, more than 6,700 flights in and out of the US had been delayed and more than 1,000 were cancelled.

One issue airlines are facing is trying to get planes in and out of crowded gates, which is causing further delays.

US President Joe Biden has been briefed on the FAA glitch, and the White House said there was no evidence of a cyberattack “at this point”.

Speaking to reporters, the president said the FAA “expect [that] in a couple of hours they’ll have a good sense of what caused it, and we’ll respond at that time”.

In a tweet, the White House Press Secretary said the president had called for a “full investigation”.

The FAA said the source of the problem was its Notice to Air Missions System.

According to the FAA, the system provides real-time safety information to pilots “about closed runways, equipment outages, and other potential hazards along a flight route or at a location that could affect the flight.”