FAA computer problem causes flight delays nationwide

A malfunction in the Federal Aviation Administration’s computer system in Georgia has led to big slowdowns in air traffic across the U.S. this afternoon.

As of 1:20 p.m. (Pacific) today, no delays were reported at LAX, but Las Vegas flights are reported to be delayed by as much as 30 minutes.

“The FAA is experiencing a problem with the computer system that we use to process flight plans,” said Ian Gregor, an FAA spokesman. “As a result, flight plan processing is occurring more slowly than usual, which is leading to delays nationwide because air carriers cannot take off without flight plans.”

“The problem is not affecting safety. However, it is causing slowdowns throughout the National Airspace System,” Gregor added. “Technicians are working to resolve the problem.”

We would hope so. Departures at Midway airport in Chicago are as long as one hour and 45 minutes, according to the FAA’s website, and Baltimore-Washington International in Maryland reported departure delays as long as one hour and 30 minutes. Atlanta also was reporting delays, but the cause of that was weather, the FAA said.

— Catharine Hamm, Travel Editor

[Photo: Image from flight data provider <a href=”http://fboweb.com”>fboweb.com</a> shows active flights in U.S. airspace, as well as flights to and from the U.S., at noon Pacific time.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 26, 2008 at 1:32 pm by Catharine Hamm and is filed under Airline travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.