U.S. flights allowed to resume, but Canadians warned to expect delays

A countrywide grounding of aircraft in the United States on Friday afternoon was lifted about five hours after being ordered, but travel plans had already been disrupted for many Canadians hoping to head south of the border or come home.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration had issued a so-called ground stop order at around 4 p.m. eastern time, citing communications issues affecting the nearly two dozen air traffic control centres that direct planes en route between airports across the country.

Airports across Canada suspended flights to and from the United States. Air Canada said late Friday that it was cancelling the rest of those flights for the rest of the day.

The Calgary Airport Authority said after the ground stop order was lifted that it was making a similar move.

"All flights bound for the lower 48 states have now been cancelled out of YYC for Friday, Nov. 13, and some delays are still possible across other routes," it said in a statement.

The Vancouver Airport Authority said continued cancellations and delays were expected, especially for flights to the continental United States and Mexico, as airlines worked to restore their networks.

Nav Canada, the privately run non-profit corporation that operates Canada's civil air navigation system, said it would continue to ensure air traffic remains safe and efficient in Canadian airspace.

"Some delays may continue while operations return to normal and backlogs are cleared," it said on social media. "Passengers are encouraged to check the status of their flight with their airline."

Toronto Pearson International Airport said arriving and departing U.S. flights continued to experience disruptions and cancellations.

Earlier in the evening, passengers at Pearson stood with their luggage, repeatedly refreshing their phones and looking for answers from airport staff.

For Kelly Adenike, who was trying to get to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic, the question was whether she would make it out of Pearson at all or end up back home in Kitchener, Ont.

"This really sucks," she said. "Do they expect me to go home? Could they call it off soon? Maybe let us know if we can wait until midnight?"

Brenda Zhou and her daughter, Athena Guan, were supposed to fly to Miami, where Athena was scheduled to attend a college soccer identification camp.

The Toronto residents had checked in at Pearson and cleared the initial steps before U.S. customs processing was abruptly shut down, Zhou said.

"They just shut down everything and sent everybody out," she said.

Air Canada rebooked them on a flight to Tampa for Saturday night, meaning her daughter would miss a camp session that morning.

Zhou said she had already paid for a hotel, a rental car and the camp registration fee, and did not know whether she would be able to recover those costs. She said they would head back home and were now hoping to make the camp on Sunday.

One Canadian trying to head back north of the border said the airplane doors had just closed on her flight from Nashville to Toronto when the captain announced that the plane would not be able to take off due to an unforeseen issue with air traffic control.

Samantha Chowen, who lives in Regina, said passengers were asked to deplane after about an hour.

She said she was told not to expect to fly home to Canada on Friday but to get a hotel and wait for further notice.

"They said they will be emailing us shortly with a rerouted flight but that right now they can't guarantee when that will be," said Chowen. "Kind of just sit and wait I guess."

Chowen, who had been on a weeklong trip, said she tore her ACL on the third day of her vacation.

"I've been hobbling around just trying to get home," said Chowen. "As long as I'm home by Monday to make my MRI, this is fine."

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told reporters at the White House that nobody was in any danger during the communications failure.

“There was never any lives at risk,” Mullin said. “There was no flights at risk. FAA was able to handle it. We did it out of an abundance of caution.”

Mullin said the aviation agency was installing new equipment and it was "overwhelming the older system.” There appeared to be no indication of a cyberattack, Mullin said.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said there was no guarantee the scenario wouldn't repeat itself.

“Is this exact thing going to happen again?” he said. “I don’t — I don’t know that this exact scenario will happen.”

Duffy also repeatedly called on Congress to authorize billions of dollars in spending to modernize federal aviation safety.

This was the first countrywide ground stop in the United States since January 2023, when a key FAA computer system malfunctioned. The last such shutdown before 2023 happened after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 13, 2026.

— with files from The Associated Press

By Catherine Morrison and Sandra Ezekwesili | Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.