Flights to Europe and Asia leave the US despite suspension

Asome international flights to Europe and Asia were able to leave US airports this Friday, despite the national suspension ordered by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

Despite the suspension, several local press agencies and air-tracking platforms registered on Friday the departure of flights that were not expected to fly over the continental territory of the United States (USA).

Among them, some traveled from the east coast of the country to Europe, while others moved to the Hawaiian archipelago and Asia, departing from airports on the west coast of the United States.

In New York, JetBlue canceled all other flights from John F. Kennedy Airport except those heading for Europe, according to a message broadcast through Terminal 5's sound system and quoted by the New York Times.

The suspension has so far not affected any flight to or from Portugal.

But, according to the Lisbon airport portal on the Internet, a TAP flight Air Portugal from Newark, Northeastern USA, which had arrived at 05:25, is expected to land almost two hours late at 7:05.

International departures from the United States are being “evaluated on a case-by-case basis,” United Airlines reported, which operates the largest aircraft fleet in the United States.

According to United Airlines, although domestic flights remain retained, “international departures are being assessed on a case-by-case basis by FAA”.

The number of flights cancelled in the United States already exceeds 2,400, and continues to increase rapidly, according to data from the FlightRadar24 platform, after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) suspended all take-offs in the country.

The most affected airports, according to the same source, are Chicago (308 cancelled flights), La Guardia – New York (253), Atlanta (247), Dallas (214) and JFK – New York (189).

Near 700 flights are still in the air, according to FlightRadar24.

Internal Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has, however, denied information that the problem that led to the suspension of flights is linked to the new FAA computer system, based on artificial intelligence (SMART), which the agency is implementing to help predict problems in airspace.

The FAA suspended on Friday all take-offs in the country due to communication problems in regional air traffic control centres.

National Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin assured on Friday that the order to suspend take-offs at the country’s airports is not due to the terrorist threat, but to “a disruption in telecommunications”.

“ There is no reason for the public to be afraid or worried about their loved ones; this is not a new 9/11,” Mullin told reporters in the White House.

This is the first suspension of flights at national level in the United States since January 2023, when a critical IT system of the FAA failed. Before that, the latest occurrence of the gender had been following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.