Flights to New York and Philadelphia Are Being Held on the Ground After an FAA Equipment Failure

Flights headed to six airports in the New York and Philadelphia area are being held at their departure airports on Monday after an equipment outage in the Federal Aviation Administration's air traffic system. It issued ground stops, which keep flights bound for an affected airport from taking off until the restriction lifts.

Flight tracker Flightradar24 reported the stop began at Newark, Philadelphia and Teterboro. It has since expanded to JFK and LaGuardia, along with Westchester County Airport. By late morning Newark had logged 92 cancellations and nearly 70 diversions, with planes already in the air sent to other airports.

So far the FAA hasn't said what failed or when normal operations will resume.

The Second Failure in Two Days

It's the second breakdown in the same airspace in two days. On Sunday, JFK suffered a total radar failure and Westchester lost its radio frequencies, forcing Newark and LaGuardia to hold flights too. Ground stops there were lifted by late morning, and the cause of that disruption is still under investigation.

Newark's approach equipment has a troubled history. In 2025, controllers at the Philadelphia facility that handles Newark's approach traffic lost radar and radio contact with aircraft for about 90 seconds, and outages there repeated several times that spring. The FAA has been replacing aging copper wiring with fiber optic lines between its Philadelphia and New York facilities as part of a wider plan to modernize the air traffic control system.

Why One Outage Spreads So Far

New York is the most crowded airspace in the country, and its three major airports share approach paths packed tightly together. When controllers lose equipment, the safe response is to reduce how many planes are in the air, and that means stopping them before they leave. A ground stop in New York ripples into delays at airports across the country, because the aircraft and crews meant for later flights end up stuck somewhere else.

If You're Flying Today

• Check your flight status directly with your airline before heading to the airport, since departure boards update faster than third-party apps.
• Look for a travel waiver. Airlines often let passengers rebook for free during a large disruption, and those waivers appear on their websites.
• If your flight is canceled, you're entitled to a refund if you choose not to travel, regardless of the cause.
• Expect knock-on delays well into the evening even after the ground stop lifts, because aircraft and crews will be out of position.

This story will be updated as the FAA releases more information.