SHREVEPORT, La. — Travelers at Shreveport Regional Airport sat through hours of delays Friday after the Federal Aviation Administration grounded departing domestic flights across the country, a stop that was lifted Friday night.
Airport officials said every arriving flight appeared to be running late during the stop. One of two departures bound for Houston was pushed back to 5 p.m. The second Houston departure had not yet been marked late at that point.
Earlier in the afternoon, the airport had four departures left on the schedule. A Dallas flight was running roughly two hours behind and an Atlanta flight about one hour behind.
Some passengers chose to wait for the next available seat, while others gave up on flying and rented cars to drive to their destinations. The airport advised anyone with a trip planned to check with their airline for current flight status.
Citing safety, the FAA called the situation behind its nationwide order extraordinary. Planes were cleared to fly again shortly after 8:30 that night. Federal officials have pointed to a telecommunications problem as the likely cause, and U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the decades-old network that guides planes across the nation simply got swamped.
Duffy is asking Congress for $50 billion to modernize that system. Federal transportation officials warned that schedules will need a while to get back to normal, so travelers using the Shreveport airport this weekend may still see knock-on delays. Anyone meeting an arriving passenger should also confirm times before heading to the airport.
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Filed under: Shreveport LA Traffic News
