More than 400 flights were cancelled and hundreds delayed at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport and William P Hobby Airport on Saturday, as passengers continued to feel the effects of a nationwide Federal Aviation Administration ground stop.
The disruption followed communication problems affecting several air-route traffic control centres on Friday, prompting the FAA to halt departures across the United States. The stoppage lasted more than four hours before being lifted, but airlines were left trying to restore their schedules.
Houston Airports warned that cancellations and delays would continue at both IAH and Hobby as carriers worked through the backlog, advising passengers to check directly with their airline before travelling to the airport.
Houston airport passengers face cancelled rebooked flights
Some travellers found that flights arranged as replacements were also cancelled or delayed by several hours. Others were left searching for luggage that had not travelled with them, with bags from different flights reportedly gathered together in the terminals.
Allison Grubeet said a planned girls’ weekend in Nashville had been abandoned after repeated disruption to her journey from Houston.
“We were about to get on our flight Friday. It was boarding when they shut everything down,” she said. “We stuck it out until midnight, finally gave up, came back early in the morning and our flight got canceled again. As Southwest didn’t have flight attendants at this point, we are canceling the trip and going home.”
The group, who live in Corpus Christi, decided to hire a car after being told the next available flight was not until Tuesday.
The FAA said its technicians were investigating the communication failure that led to the nationwide ground stop. Its air traffic control command centre later authorised flights to resume as affected facilities recovered, but the knock-on disruption continued at airports across the country.
At Houston’s two main airports, the impact was expected to persist through Monday as airlines repositioned aircraft and crews and dealt with passengers whose itineraries had been cancelled or rearranged.
