LATEST UPDATES: Thousands of flights canceled Saturday as nation recovers from Friday’s ground stop
Saturday 8:30 p.m.
Orlando International Airport was still seeing travel disruptions Saturday evening, with 232 flight cancellations reported as airlines worked to recover from a nationwide ground stop that was lifted Friday evening.
As of Saturday evening, Nov. 14, MCO was tracking 132 canceled arrivals and 100 canceled departures for the day.
Saturday 3:30 p.m.
As of Saturday afternoon Orlando International Airport reported 193 flight cancellations including 113 arrivals and 80 departures.
Passengers are being urged to check directly with their airlines before going to the airport. During the delay, MCO asked concession partners to stay open to serve travelers.
The airport also asked airlines to temporarily pause passenger check-in to reduce crowding in gate areas.
Visit Orlando arranged discounted hotel rates for impacted travelers, including at Rosen Hotels & Resorts and Hilton Orlando, according to airport officials.
Saturday 11:15 a.m.
United States Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy just provided an update on Friday’s nationwide ground stop. He reiterated the stop was due to a telecommunications issue. Secretary Duffy said a contractor,L3Harris was doing work to replace old technology at a remote location due to the age of the system when the issue began. Secretary Duffy said his office is working to determine if it was user error or a faulty router.
In the press conference, we learned the new technology flooded other routers, creating issues with communication to airplanes and radar feeds. Duffy does not believe it was a cyberattack.
Duffy said, in the last year, they’ve worked to upgrade the air traffic control system, even modernizing hundreds of radio sites. “We are building, we are building safely, but we are building fast,” Duffy said.
4,000 to 5,000 cancelations are expected Saturday as airports work to get systems back online and planes in the sky, according to officials, and they believe a majority of flights will be back in the air Sunday.
Saturday 10:15 a.m.
The flight board inside Orlando International Airport continues to light up with canceled and delayed flights. News 6’s Paul Dolan compared it to a traffic light! He’s at MCO with the latest updates, check here to see what he’s seeing this morning.
Some flights are still canceled Saturday as the nation recovers from Friday’s ground stop.
News 6’s Paul Dolan is bringing us the latest from Orlando International Airport. pic.twitter.com/SusBJMSSn9— News 6 WKMG (@news6wkmg) November 14, 2026
Saturday 9 a.m.
The Sanford International Airport is starting to show what travelers can expect today.
A quick check of their delays and departures shows hours long delays for flights that were scheduled for Saturday morning. You can see that here.
A flight bound Atlantic City, New Jersey was delayed from 10:15 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday night. An Allegiant Flight bound for Peoria Illinois was moved back about an hour.
[WATCH HERE: Latest updates on Friday’s ground stop]
Saturday 8 a.m.
As U.S. airports attempt to recover from Friday’s ground stop, we took a look at MCO’s flight board this morning.
Right now, multiple flights are delayed or canceled at the airport. You can check your flight here.
We’re also learning Saturday the issue had to do with patches to the old air traffic control system.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy saying “They were putting new equipment and new technology, and that new equipment, new technology just wasn’t, it was overwhelming the older system.”
We have a crew at MCO, check back for updates.
Friday
The Federal Aviation Administration has finally lifted an hours-long ground stop for flights across the nation, according to federal officials.
During a news conference on Friday night, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy claimed the incident happened around 3:30 p.m.
[RELATED: Flight frustrations mount at MCO after nationwide ground stop]
“We started to have inconsistency in our radars and our communication with airplanes,” he said.
At that point, Duffy explained, the ground stop was issued, with over 3,500 planes still in the air.
Update in minutes
https://t.co/4UrObq7Tm8
— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) November 14, 2026
The FAA initially announced there was a “temprorary telecommunications outage,” with flights being halted out of “an abundance of caution.”
“Every flight has been accounted for, and international flights will be handled on a case by case basis,” the agency said.
Federal officials announced the ground stop was lifted at 8:15 p.m.
Duffy pointed to the agency’s “old” air traffic control system, which the Trump Administration has been trying to replace.
“Our switches, our routers actually got overloaded with data, and… they started to give us inconsistency in the data from those routers,” he said. “And because of that, we shut the system down. Now, I have already some of those switches with President Trump, and our new IP switches did not go down. It’s the old hardware that went down.”
After the declaration, the Orlando International Airport provided the following statement:
“We continue to ask passengers to please check with their airlines to confirm future departure times. Please encourage viewers and readers to avoid coming to the airport unless they have confirmed with the airline that the flight will depart.
As of now, MCO anticipates 90 cancellations for Saturday (tomorrow); however, this number may fluctuate as airlines resume operations.
Our partner Visit Orlando has arranged discount hotel rates through Rosen Hotels and Resorts, for those who have proof of a ticket on an impacted flight, and through Hilton Orlando, which is offering a distressed rate.
For specific questions about the ground stop, please contact the FAA at pressoffice@faa.gov/ 202.267.3883.”