Flight disruptions continue at Raleigh-Durham International Airport Sunday afternoon following FAA ground stop

Kristen Johnson, The News & Observer (Raleigh) on Nov 15, 2026

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

Travelers at Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU) are continuing to experience disruptions as the federal aviation system struggles to recover from a nationwide ground stop issued Friday.

As of 12:50 p.m. Sunday, RDU has seen 43 flight cancellations and 70 delays, according to live tracking data Flight Aware, leaving thousands of weekend travelers stranded in the terminals.

The travel nightmare stems from a four-hour nationwide ground stop initiated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Friday afternoon. The system outage was triggered by a botched maintenance procedure intended to upgrade aging telecommunications, according to the FAA. The failures lead to the halting of all departures across the country.

At RDU, 147 flights were canceled Friday and 109 on Saturday. Before 6 p.m. yesterday, most flights had landed at RDU, with two transcontinental flights (Alaska Airlines from San Diego and Delta Air Lines from Los Angeles), The News & Observer reported.

While officials confirmed there is no evidence of a cyberattack, the fallout has triggered thousands of delayed and canceled flights throughout the remainder of the weekend. Transportation officials expect flight scheduled to recover by the end of Sunday, but RDU passengers are advised to check with their airlines for the latest flight statuses before heading to the airport.

_____