FAA outage could cause ‘ripple effect’ of flight delays at Sarasota-Bradenton airport
The Federal Aviation Administration has resumed domestic flight departures after restoring its nationwide Notice to Air Missions alert system.
Operations at Sarasota Bradenton International Airport resumed about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, shortly after the FAA said that its system for alerting pilots and airports of real-time hazards had been restored.
Because of technical breakdown at 3:28 a.m., six flights were canceled and 32 were delayed, said Rick Piccolo, the president and CEO of SRQ.
“I would expect delays to continue through the day because of the ripple effect and that there would be some delays tomorrow,” Piccolo said.
A silver lining was that the glitch occurred on the slowest travel day of the week at SRQ, he said.
He encouraged travelers to check with their airline on flight status and to download the airline’s app on their phone.
Piccolo said there have been other regional breakdowns in the Notice to Air Missions alerts, but couldn’t remember one that affected the entire United States.
Beau Zimmer, communications manager at Tampa International Airport, said that a little more than half of flights there have been impacted by delays.
“Right now, 242 flights or about 56% have been delayed. We have 16 cancellations,” Zimmer said.
Robyn Murrell contributed to this report.
This story was originally published January 11, 2023 at 10:54 AM.
