Flights to U.S. held at YYC as FAA nationwide ground stop continues
The FAA halted flights nationwide over a telecommunications outage. Calgary International is holding departures to the U.S., and no timetable for resolution has been given.
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WestJet cancelled several Calgary flights Friday night, including departures to San Francisco, Phoenix, Palm Springs, Orlando, Las Vegas and Los Angeles, according to the airport's website. The cancellations followed a nationwide ground stop ordered by the Federal Aviation Administration on Friday, November 13, 2026, and Calgary International (YYC) is holding flights bound for the U.S.
The FAA attributed the halt to what it called a temporary telecommunications outage. In a post on X, the agency said that "out of an abundance of caution all flights have been halted" and that "every flight has been accounted for." International flights, it said, will be handled case by case.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the first priority was to restore communications and get all flights on the ground, then return to normal operations and find the root cause. He said a cyberattack has not been ruled out, but that preliminary reports indicate the stop was not a cyberattack, according to law enforcement sources. Mullin said the outage was not connected to the Microsoft disruption that hit globally Thursday into Friday. He also warned that returning air traffic to normal "isn't going to just be resolved and turned around within the next hour." Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy briefed President Donald Trump on the issue.
Flightradar24 counted aircraft airborne and bound for U.S. airports during the ground stop, but the number actually holding on the ground was not reported. The halt is the first nationwide departure stop since January 2023, when a stop came after a system failure caused by contract staff deleting files, and only the second since the September 11 attacks.
The FAA rolled out a new AI tool for advising air traffic controllers, called SMART, days before the outage. It launched in September, and is meant to be used at all major air route control centres. The FAA has not said whether SMART played any role in Friday's ground stop. Hours before the stop, the White House and the U.S. Department of Transportation had asked Congress for additional funding for aviation infrastructure, including air traffic control upgrades.
No timetable has been given for when the ground stop will end. Travellers should confirm their departures with their airline before heading to the airport.
