After the chaos in the skies, the US heads toward 'full operational capability'. But the damage is being counted

The chaos of the nearly five-hour total flight ban, decided Friday in the United States, also spilled over into Saturday, in the middle of efforts to return to normal in American skies. Thousands more cancellations and tens of thousands of passengers stranded in airports, while, according to early estimates, the chaos may have caused damage of at least one billion dollars, between extra expenses incurred by travelers and those of the airlines. The authorities estimated that of the 41,000 American flights scheduled for the entire day today, between 4,000 and 5,000 were likely to be canceled, explained Bryan Bedford, administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the US agency that oversees air transport. By late morning, however, the number of cancellations had already reached 4,600: a heavy toll, in addition to the roughly 9,000 commercial flights scrapped on Friday, to which must also be added the 3,000 private jet flights, a sector that is constantly expanding. All in all, a toll not far from the FAA's own estimate, which already on the morning of the 'day after' reported more than 16,000 flights canceled since the start of the emergency. An impressive figure, as is the number of passengers involved: approximately 1.1-1.3 million people, mostly at major American hubs, including those in Boston, Atlanta, Miami, Pittsburgh, New York, Los Angeles and Baltimore. At New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, despite the more optimistic forecasts, some flights were scrapped just minutes before boarding began: the loudspeakers announced that the cause was a staff shortage, another side effect of the shutdown. The airlines, including United, Delta and American, have said they will not apply change fees for ticket modifications. Airports urged passengers to check the status of their flight to avoid long waits. "We are back to full operations," assured Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy during a press conference: but the return to normality will take more time, at least the entire weekend. The goal is to ensure full and total regularity of flights for Thanksgiving, the Day of Thanksgiving on November 26, when, thanks to the long weekend, millions of Americans will set off on their travels. US authorities are investigating to shed light on the flight ban that created the chaos, and attention is focused on some faulty equipment, identified and isolated, which created a domino effect that led to the worst air shutdown in 25 years, since the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers on September 11. In January 2023, due to a failure in the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) system, a national flight ban had been imposed for several hours, causing delays in domestic connections across the country. At the time, the FAA explained that the notification system intended for flight crews had gone down overnight. "This is an absolutely unprecedented situation," commented Robert Sumwalt, former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board and transportation safety expert. "I was an airline pilot for 24 years. I was flying on September 11; that was the last time a flight ban of such magnitude occurred. It is truly incredible that something like this could happen nowadays." An opinion widely shared by the tens of thousands of people trapped by the chaos in the stars-and-stripes skies, which also caused serious disruption to connections with Europe. Reproduction reserved © Copyright ANSA