US flights resume after stoppage but delays expected

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A grounding of flights in the US has been lifted after a communications failure at air traffic control centres caused chaos.

The US Federal Aviation Administration has lifted a grounding of flights after a communications failure at air traffic control centres caused chaos at US airports.

The ground stop triggered the longest US flight shutdown since the 11 September 2001 attacks.

US airspace reopened at 1.15am Irish time but US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned that departures would resume gradually and it would take time for airlines to restore normal operations.

By 11:30pm, nearly 10,000 flights had been cancelled, including more than 2,200 each at Delta Air Lines and American Airlines, and 1,800 at United Airlines, according to Flightradar24.

The plane-tracking website said some aircraft at major airports had waited more than five hours for a gate.

The four-hour nationwide grounding could disrupt airline schedules for days, aviation analysts said.

Mr Duffy said tens of thousands of passengers were stranded at airports around the country.

Mr Duffy said he and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin had met with US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office to discuss the outage.

The failure is the latest and most dramatic sign of strain on a US air traffic control system beset by aging technology, equipment and communications problems and a shortage of several thousand controllers.

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