US flight disruptions continue for 3rd day, over 10,000 flights hit

More than 10,000 US flights were cancelled or delayed on Sunday as air travel disruptions entered their third day. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy expects normalcy by Monday, while investigators probe a router failure that overwhelmed air traffic control systems.More than 10,000 US flights cancelled or delayed on Sunday. (Photo- Reuters)More than 10,000 flights across the US were cancelled or delayed on Sunday as air travel disruptions continued for a third consecutive day, with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy predicting a return to normal operations by Monday. Airlines continued scrambling to restore schedules after a nationwide ground stop on Friday brought nearly all departing flights to a halt for almost five hours.According to aviation data tracker FlightAware, more than 2,300 flights were cancelled and around 7,700 delayed across the country on Sunday. The disruption followed an even worse Saturday, when airlines cancelled over 6,400 flights and delayed more than 8,000.Speaking on ABC's 'This Week', Duffy said there was no evidence of a cyberattack or deliberate sabotage behind the disruption, although investigators had yet to establish its root cause. He said flight operations could return to normal by Monday, while stressing that passenger safety remained the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) priority.JetBlue was among the worst-affected airlines on Sunday, cancelling 28 per cent of its flights, followed by American Airlines at 17 per cent. United Airlines, Southwest and Delta reported cancellations ranging between 3 and 5 per cent of their scheduled flights. ROUTER FAILURE TRIGGERED NATIONWIDE DISRUPTIONThe FAA imposed a nationwide ground stop on Friday, halting nearly all departing flights for almost five hours. It was the longest nationwide suspension of US air travel since the September 11, 2001, terror attacks.The disruption was linked to problems involving routers installed by FAA contractor L3Harris at air traffic control facilities. According to officials, the installation of a new router at a remote facility triggered a flood of data that overwhelmed other air traffic control centres and disrupted communication systems. Duffy said the replacement of a router at an FAA facility in El Dorado, Arkansas, triggered problems involving a recently replaced router in Amarillo, Texas. The latter began broadcasting excessive data, overloading routers at other air traffic control centres across the country.The FAA said it had disabled the functionality of the routers responsible for originating the problem and had taken similar action involving around 60 comparable routers across the air traffic control network.However, authorities are yet to determine the precise technical cause of the failure, despite similar maintenance work having been carried out thousands of times previously without any issues.Duffy also dismissed suspicions of deliberate sabotage, saying the worker who installed the router was believed to be a military veteran and a patriot. He added that investigators had found no indication that the installation was intended to compromise the network.The incident has once again exposed the vulnerabilities of the US air traffic control system, which has been struggling with ageing technology, equipment and communication problems, alongside a shortage of several thousand air traffic controllers.Duffy said the problematic routers were purchased in 2001 and had become obsolete by 2006.TRUMP, DUFFY SEEK BILLIONS FOR AIR TRAFFIC SYSTEMThe disruption has renewed calls for massive investments to modernise the country's air traffic control infrastructure.Duffy has sought USD 50 billion in additional funding to upgrade the system, raising his earlier request of $30 billion. Congress had approved $12.5 billion for air traffic control upgrades last year.US President Donald Trump made his first public comments on the disruption on Sunday, backing calls for additional funding."We have already started the work, but it should be done all at once, not in drips and drabs," Trump wrote on social media, urging Congress to approve the funding.However, senior Democratic lawmakers questioned the need for additional money, pointing out that nearly $11 billion of the $12.5 billion approved in 2025 remained unspent.House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee's top Democrat Rick Larsen and aviation subcommittee's top Democrat Andr Carson asked Duffy to explain why additional funding was needed when most of the previously approved amount had yet to be utilised.Duffy argued that the earlier allocation was earmarked for specific upgrades and did not cover new software required to manage the country's airspace.Meanwhile, aviation industry representatives have called for greater private investment alongside government spending.Justin Erbacci, director general of Airports Council International, said modernising aviation infrastructure could not depend solely on government funding.Speaking at an aviation infrastructure forum in Montreal, Erbacci stressed the need for investment to accommodate rising passenger traffic and replace outdated systems.According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), global air passenger traffic is projected to more than double by 2050.- Ends