Hundreds of flights were canceled in the US Northeast due to technical problems at a regional air traffic control center, as every airport in the New York City area ground to a halt for several hours Monday just as foreign leaders were flying to the United Nations General Assembly.
However, President Donald Trump’s flight from Washington to New York was able to depart as scheduled.
The technical problems happened at the same Federal Aviation Administration facility in Philadelphia that caused disruptions at Newark Liberty International Airport in the spring of 2025.
Regional control centers like these have two lines that carry data in and out: the primary and the backup. The FAA said a circuit on the primary failed Monday morning, and when the system tried to switch to the backup, workers discovered that the fiber optic line had been cut. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said an Amtrak construction crew was to blame.
The outage affected flights for Philadelphia as well as Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark airports.
By early afternoon, some flights were starting to resume at LaGuardia, Kennedy and in Philadelphia. However, delays were expected through the rest of the day.
Some airlines were allowing their customers to change flights without charging them fees. The FAA advised travelers to check the status of their flights with their airline before heading to the airport.
FAA administrator Bryan Bedford told reporters that the agency is working to restore the primary connection as soon as possible by installing a new circuit on the primary line, while also working to repair the backup fiber optic line. He said it’s not how long that will take. Verizon said its technicians are working to restore service as soon as possible.
“That fiber break is probably 13 hours to repair. It’s massive,” Bedford said, according to a video posted online by a CBS transportation reporter. He said that the FAA may be able to install a new circuit to get the primary line working again even before the fiber line is fixed.
The primary circuit that failed is due to be replaced as part of the overhaul of the nation’s air traffic control system.
Also Monday, the FAA began testing a new computer system that uses AI to help predict schedule conflicts and weather issues to help air traffic controllers reroute traffic. But that system is initially being tested only in the Washington, D.C. area, so it does not appear to be linked to the outages.