US air traffic control system stable after nationwide outage: FAA

The US air traffic control system remained stable Saturday following a nationwide outage, but thousands more flights were expected to be canceled as airlines worked to restore normal operations, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Administrator Bryan Bedford said.

"This morning, the system remains stable, and our airline partners are working through the operational recovery," Bedford told reporters at a joint news conference with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.

Bedford said airlines were expected to cancel between 4,000 and 5,000 of approximately 41,000 flights scheduled Saturday as they worked to reposition aircraft and crews affected by Friday's nationwide ground stop.

He said airlines expected to restore their full schedules by the close of business Sunday.

"I do think the worst is behind us, but we still do have a significant amount of recovery work to do with our airline stakeholder group," he said.

Bedford said approximately 12,000 flights could not be completed Friday, including 9,000 commercial flights and 3,000 general aviation flights.

Duffy said the disruption appeared linked to routine maintenance by FAA contractor L3Harris to replace aging copper telecommunications lines with fiber-optic connections.

He said officials were investigating whether contractor error or faulty equipment caused the failure, adding that they did not believe it was a cyberattack.