Airlines expect full system recovery by Thursday
2023.01.12 09:06
Airlines expect full system recovery by Thursday
Budrigannews.com – The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is working feverishly to pinpoint the cause of a computer outage that grounded flights across the country and to prevent it from happening again. U.S. airlines have stated that they anticipate operations returning to normal on Thursday.
However, as of early Thursday morning, according to FlightAware, 577 US flights had been delayed, and 76 had been canceled.
The first national grounding of domestic flights in roughly two decades resulted in the delaying or canceling of more than 11,300 flights on Wednesday.
Big airlines like Delta Air Lines (NYSE:), American Airlines and United Airlines Southwest Airlines and Group Inc. (NYSE:) declared that they expected business to resume on Thursday.
After it predicted a higher fourth-quarter profit, American Airlines’ shares reversed course and traded higher at about 5% premarket. This sent shares of rivals United, Southwest, and Delta up between 1% and 3%.
Flights were temporarily halted due to a computer failure at the FAA that prevented airports from updating safety notices that alert pilots to potential dangers like runway closures, equipment outages, and construction.
The FAA stated that a damaged database file was the source of the issue after a preliminary investigation, but that there was no evidence of a cyberattack and that the investigation was still ongoing.
People familiar with the review, who requested anonymity, claimed that the same file corrupted both the primary system and its backup.
Maria Cantwell, a Democrat who chairs the Commerce Committee in the US Senate, said that the committee would look into it. The failure was described by Republican Senator Ted Cruz as “completely unacceptable.”
A note from brokerage Bernstein stated, “The modernization of the FAA will be expensive, and will be paid for through a combination of taxes on air travel that affect all carriers and efficiencies by larger airlines.”
Arjun Garg, the former acting deputy administrator and chief counsel of the FAA, stated that it was premature to draw any conclusions regarding the incident, but that the agency was justified in grounding flights if a safety system was not functioning properly.
According to Garg, who is now a partner at the law firm Hogan Lovells, the incident served as a reminder that the FAA was subject to an annual appropriation cycle. This made it difficult to plan and carry out significant, multiyear projects like upgrades to air traffic control.
He stated in an interview, “The health of that agency and its ability to deliver on its mission really is important.” It has a lot of attention.”
Since March, the FAA has not had a permanent administrator. President Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the agency, Denver International Airport Chief Executive Phil Washington, who was renominated last week, has not been subjected to a Senate hearing.
