Listen to this article
Estimated 3 minutes
The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said flights were starting to resume at some busy East Coast airports after an accidentally cut cable forced ground stops in New York, Philadelphia and Boston on Monday.
Airports in New Jersey and Philadelphia were also affected after a fibre cable was accidentally cut at a construction site in New Jersey.
While flights were resuming in New York and Boston, the FAA said ground stops continued at Newark and Philadelphia.
The disruption occurred as 130 world leaders and dozens of ministers are arriving in New York for the annual high-level meeting of the United Nations General Assembly.
Prime Minister Mark Carney was among the leaders whose flights were affected. His office said his planned flight into New York this evening was delayed, meaning he would not make it to a scheduled event. He is expected to arrive in the city later Monday night.
FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford told reporters a backup fibre line had been accidentally cut by a construction crew in New Jersey, prompting significant flight cuts.
Passengers at Philadelphia International Airport were left looking for alternatives after a ground stoppage halted flights in and out for hours on Sept. 21. (Alexandre Silberman/CBC News)
Fewer than a dozen flights were affected at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport as a result of the ground stop in the U.S.
Officials at Pearson and at Montreal’s Trudeau International Airport said they were continuing to monitor the situation, and encouraged passengers flying to or from the U.S. to contact their airlines directly for updated information.
FlightAware, a flight-tracking site, said more than 600 flights at Newark and Philadelphia airports, or more than 20 per cent, had been delayed. Both airports are served by Philadelphia Terminal Radar Approach Control. Newark is a major United Airlines hub, while Philadelphia is an American Airlines hub.
The issue has also forced a number of flights to divert to other airports. Flightradar24, a flight-tracking site, said flights at Newark were being delayed by an average of 112 minutes.
In May 2025, the facility that guides air traffic in and out of Newark airport suffered a series of significant communications outages.
The FAA said last year a telecommunications outage impacted communications and radar displays at Philadelphia TRACON.
Last year, Congress approved $12.5 billion US to address the aging air traffic control system and boost controller hiring following decades of complaints over airport congestion and flight delays, as well as a series of technology issues in recent years.