Flights at several major airports on the U.S. East Coast have been grounded or delayed on Monday following a technical malfunction, the top aviation body said, with reports of a primary circuit cable being cut as a source of the issue.
The technical problems occurred at a key regional air traffic control center, halting operations at every major airport in the New York City area for several hours on Monday, just as numerous foreign leaders were flying in for the U.N. General Assembly.
However, President Donald Trump's flight from Washington to New York was able to depart as scheduled.
The airports affected included JFK, Newark, LaGuardia and Westchester County in New York; Logan International Airport in Boston; Philadelphia International Airport; and Teterboro Airport in New Jersey.
The technical issues happened at the same Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) facility in Philadelphia – the Terminal Radar Approach Control center – that caused numerous disruptions at Newark Liberty International Airport in the spring of 2025.
The center controls approaches and departures, as well as the spacing between aircraft in the terminal's airspace.
Broadcaster NBC News reported that the travel plans of thousands of passengers have been affected.
The FAA has not yet provided any information on how long the disruption might last.
Cable cut
Monday's airport disruption stemmed from two problems, according to Bryan Bedford, head of the Federal Aviation Administration.
On Monday morning, the primary circuit that carries data into that air traffic control facility failed, affecting flights for Philadelphia, as well as Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark airports, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
The FAA then discovered that the backup fiber optic line had been cut due to construction. Verizon said contractors had dug up and cut the cable that runs along the Amtrak rail line in New Jersey. The company said in a statement that its technicians were racing to get the cable fixed.
By early afternoon, some flights were starting to resume at LaGuardia and in Philadelphia, but significant delays are expected through the rest of the day. Some airlines were allowing their customers to change flights without charging them fees. The FAA advised travelers to check the status of their flights with their airline before heading to the airport.
Bedford told reporters that the agency is working to restore the key connection as soon as possible by installing a new circuit on the primary line, while also working to repair the backup fiber optic line. He said it's not clear how long that will take.
"That fiber break is probably 13 hours to repair. It's massive," Bedford said, according to a video posted online by a CBS transportation reporter.
The primary circuit that failed is due to be replaced as part of the overhaul of the nation's air traffic control system.
Also Monday, the FAA began testing a new computer system that uses AI to help predict schedule conflicts and weather issues to help air traffic controllers reroute traffic.
But that system is initially being tested only in the Washington, D.C., area, so it does not appear to be linked to the outages.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on X that around 7.00 p.m. GMT, flights were resuming at LaGuardia Airport and Philadelphia, while flights into Newark and JFK Airports were paused.
"An Amtrak construction crew accidentally cut into a fiber line in New Jersey, which caused a telecom outage and forced FAA to pause flights in the Northeast," Duffy said.
Around 7.00 p.m. GMT, Newark Airport, a key New York City-area hub, had 168 flights canceled and 97 delayed, while Philadelphia had 63 canceled flights and 189 delays, according to FlightAware.