FAA Halts Flights Nationwide in Ground Stop

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the U.S. agency that oversees air traffic, began a nationwide ground stop shortly before 4 p.m. Eastern Time on Nov. 13, 2026. A ground stop holds flights on the ground instead of letting them take off or land at the affected airports.

The scale of the halt was reflected in flight data. According to Flighty, more than 30,000 flights were scheduled for the remainder of Nov. 13 after the nationwide ground stop began. Flightradar24 said more than 1,000 aircraft that were in the air were headed to U.S. airports amid the stop.

Nationwide halts of this kind are rare. The FAA last stopped flights across the country in 2023, when contractors unintentionally deleted files related to a pilot alert system. That incident delayed thousands of flights.

Air travel in the United States depends on a single national network, so a stop in one part of the system can quickly affect flights elsewhere. Aircraft that were already airborne at the time of the stop had to be routed toward airports that were still accepting them, while departures from the ground were held.