Airports still facing disruption

U.S. airports were still running unevenly on Friday, April 11, with 2,757 delayed flights and 99 cancellations recorded across the network. (flightaware.com) By early Sunday, April 12, FlightAware was still showing 663 delays within, into, or out of the United States, a sign that disruptions had not fully cleared overnight. The Federal Aviation Administration’s National Airspace System dashboard also listed active airport events and flow programs early Sunday morning. (flightaware.com) (faa.gov) The Federal Aviation Administration said San Francisco International Airport was under a ground delay program on April 10 because of low ceilings, with average delays of 31 minutes. Its operations plan also flagged possible ground stops or delay programs later in the day around Houston, Austin, San Antonio, and Denver. (faa.gov) The federal system that decides whether a flight is on time uses a 15-minute threshold. The Bureau of Transportation Statistics says a flight counts as on time if it leaves or arrives less than 15 minutes after schedule, which means a day can look manageable on paper while still disrupting connections, crews, and aircraft rotations. (bts.gov) Those knock-on effects are harder to absorb because the air traffic control system is still short staffed. The Government Accountability Office said in January 2026 that the number of air traffic controllers had fallen about 6 percent over the past decade even as flights relying on the system rose about 10 percent. (gao.gov) The same Government Accountability Office report said most new hires must complete a 4-to-6-month course in Oklahoma City and then train on the job, with certification taking up to six years. It said only about 2 percent of applicants qualify for and complete the full training process. (gao.gov) The Federal Aviation Administration said on April 10 that it would open its 2026 hiring window for air traffic controllers on April 17. The agency said it now has almost 11,000 controllers in service and more than 4,000 trainees in the pipeline, its highest staffing level in six years. (faa.gov) Airlines are also operating in a system where monthly reliability data still matters more than any single bad day. The Bureau of Transportation Statistics released its December 2025 airline service data on March 26, 2026, and said its on-time and cancellation figures come from monthly reports filed by large airlines. (bts.gov) So a day with a few thousand delays and fewer than 100 cancellations does not require a national meltdown to snarl trips. It only takes weather at one hub, traffic restrictions in another, and a network with limited slack. (faa.gov) (gao.gov)