Cancellations, delays at O'Hare, Midway continue Saturday in fallout from yesterday's ground stop

Cancellations and delays continued to affect passengers flying in and out of Chicago's two airports Saturday morning, fallout from Friday's nationwide ground stop.

As of about 9:30 a.m., 153 flights scheduled to leave O'Hare International Airport on Saturday had been canceled and another 114 had been delayed. The cancellations represented about 11% of scheduled flights, the delays about 8%.

At Midway International Airport, 25 flights scheduled to depart had been canceled with another 13 flight delayed.

Shipping delays may affect package deliveries

The ground stop, which started about 2:30 p.m. and lasted more than four hours Friday, may affect timing of package deliveries.

The U.S. Postal Service and UPS posted notices on their websites Saturday that customers may experience delays.

Airlines slowly recovering

Across the U.S., airlines worked to recover from the longest nationwide ground stop in 25 years that canceled more than 2,500 flights Saturday, spread ripple effects around the world, stranded passengers and forced pro and college sports teams to scramble for alternate transportation.

New technology being added to the nation’s air traffic control system overloaded antiquated equipment and caused “intermittent” communications and radar gaps, leading to the flight shutdown of more than four hours, Trump administration officials said.

Airports were slowly returning to normal, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said, with planes taking flight and landing. But the effects could be felt for days, with officials saying the system would likely return to normal in time to handle the Thanksgiving travel rush.

The nationwide stop was the first since January 2023, when another key Federal Aviation Administration computer system that sends notices to pilots malfunctioned, and the second since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Andrew Charlton, an aviation consultant, said the stoppage on Friday had affected about a quarter of the 45,000 flights in the U.S. each day.

“The knock-on effect of that is incredible,” said Charlton, managing director of Aviation Advocacy. “The aircraft doesn’t just fly from A to B and back to B and then stop. It then moves onto C and then over to E and around and around and around. It is, of course, exacerbated if you’re talking about long-haul flights, international flights over the Atlantic or over the Pacific.”

Airlines are obligated to offer free rebooking on another flight for travelers who want to continue their journey, or a refund if their flight was canceled and they decide not to take the trip.

Associated Press contributed to this story.