Nationwide Flight Ground Stop Hits Friday as Trump Promotes Film Tax Incentive
A nationwide ground stop grounded flights across the United States on Friday. At the time of Variety's report, more than 10,000 flights had been delayed, and President Donald Trump had not yet made a statement about the stop.
The same day, Trump used a Truth Social post to promote a federal film and television tax incentive. A tax incentive is a tax break that encourages a certain kind of spending, in this case on film and TV productions. The proposal is called the Motion Picture, Television, and Entertainment Revitalization Act.
In the post, Trump said he is working on the Act with thirteen senators from both parties. They include Tim Scott and Adam Schiff, along with John Cornyn, Raphael Warnock, Steve Daines, Bernie Moreno, Tim Sheehy, Alex Padilla, Mark Warner, Thom Tillis, Chris Coons, Katie Britt and Dick Durbin.
He also named four members of the House of Representatives: Jason Smith, Nathaniel Moran, Brian Jack and Linda Sanchez. He said "many others from both parties" are involved too.
Trump wrote that bipartisan meetings are being set up to get the entertainment revitalisation legislation done. The post did not set out a timetable for a vote.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin spoke to the public after the ground stop. He said: "This isn't another 9/11. This is a telecommunication outage."
For film and TV workers, the Act is the item to watch. A federal incentive would matter most to productions choosing where to shoot, so any movement in Congress would be felt on set and in budgets.
For travellers, Friday's delays were the immediate story. Airlines and the Federal Aviation Administration had not, in the reporting so far, said when normal schedules would return.
