A rare nationwide flight halt in the United States on Friday afternoon sent ripples all the way down to Los Cabos, where most international visitors arrive on flights from U.S. cities. The order has since been lifted, but anyone flying to or from Cabo this weekend should check their flight before heading to the airport.
What happened
On Friday, November 13, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered a ground stop at every airport in the country, halting all departing flights “due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety.” The agency blamed a temporary telecommunications outage affecting all of its Air Route Traffic Control Centers, the facilities that guide planes between airports.
Planes already in the air were allowed to continue to their destinations, and the FAA said international flights would be handled on a case-by-case basis. According to flight-tracking service Flightradar24, the stop took effect just before 2 p.m. Los Cabos time and was lifted a little after 6 p.m., more than four hours later.
It was only the third time all U.S. departures have been halted nationwide, after the September 11, 2001 attacks and an FAA system failure in January 2023.
What caused it
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said switches and routers in what he called an “incredibly old air traffic control system” became overloaded with data and began giving inconsistent information, so the system was shut down. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said there was no sign of a cyberattack, though officials said they were still looking into it and the exact cause has not been officially confirmed.
A big mess up north
Duffy said more than 3,500 planes were in the air when the order was issued. By Friday evening, nearly 5,000 U.S. flights had been canceled and more than 10,000 delayed, according to FlightAware figures cited by ABC News. United and JetBlue canceled most of their remaining Friday flights, and Air Canada called off its remaining U.S. flights for the day. Duffy said it will “take time” to make up for the disruption.
What it means for Los Cabos
Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico (GAP), which runs the Los Cabos and La Paz airports, said Friday that the FAA restrictions were affecting international flights in its network, including routes to the United States. GAP did not say how many Los Cabos flights were affected or name specific airlines or routes, and there is no official count yet of canceled or delayed flights in Los Cabos. GAP said normal operations depend on U.S. authorities restoring conditions.
Los Cabos International Airport has about 30 routes to the U.S., and most of those flights are operated by U.S. airlines with planes that rotate in from cities such as Dallas, Phoenix, Houston and Los Angeles. A plane that can’t leave the U.S. can’t fly to Cabo and back, so the effects can show up here as late arrivals, delayed departures or cancellations even after the ground stop ended. When planes and crews are stuck in the wrong cities, airlines often need a day or more to get schedules back to normal.
Mexico City’s airport also confirmed that flights to and from the U.S. were affected, and the trade publication Transporte.mx listed Los Cabos among the Mexican airports most exposed. It noted, however, that the halt did not mean every Mexico–U.S. flight was canceled; the impact depends on where each plane was and on each airline’s decisions.
What travelers should do
Check your flight status directly with your airline before heading to the airport. Only the airline can confirm whether a specific flight is operating.
Picking up friends or family arriving from the U.S.? Check their flight before you drive out to the airport.
GAP posts general airport information at aeropuertosgap.com.mx.
Look at your airline’s travel alerts page for any change-fee waivers, and review your rebooking and refund options, especially if you have connections or tickets on more than one airline.
Under U.S. Department of Transportation rules, you may be entitled to a refund if your flight is canceled or significantly changed and you choose not to accept the alternative the airline offers.
The Gringo Gazette will update this story as more information on local flights becomes available.
