A rare nationwide ground stop ordered by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) between 22:00 UTC on 13 November and 05:00 UTC on 14 November forced Eurocontrol to suspend all US-bound departures from its 42 member states, including France. Air France cancelled its 07:10 Paris-Charles de Gaulle (AF 012) service to New York JFK and retimed the Atlanta and Los Angeles flights for midday slots after the ban was lifted. British Airways and Delta also held aircraft on the ground at CDG until new Air Traffic Flow Management slots could be issued. The incident, reportedly triggered by a software clash during a system upgrade, was only the second US-wide grounding since 11 September 2001. While flight operations gradually normalised by Saturday afternoon, residual knock-ons include crew-duty time extensions, positioning-flight squeezes and a shortage of wide-body gates at CDG’s Terminal 2E. Travel-management companies are urging passengers booked on Sunday and Monday transatlantic services to reconfirm flight times as airlines juggle aircraft rotations. French exporters shipping high-value pharmaceuticals and fashion samples under “cargo-in-cabin” programmes faced particular headaches, with perishables re-routed via Madrid and Frankfurt. The episode renews pressure on EU lawmakers debating whether to mandate a Europe-wide contingency network mirroring the US’s NOTAM database.
Source: AOL News
