Today might not be the best day to fly. Earlier this morning, the Federal Aviation Administration suffered an outage to its Notice to Air Missions system. Better known as NOTAMs, these provide information to pilots about potential hazards along their routes, including temporary flight restrictions such as a rocket launch or air show, perhaps.
Consequently, flight operations across the US have been affected. At first individual airlines delayed flights, but at 7:19 am Eastern the FAA announced a nationwide pause in all flight departures until 9 am Eastern time.
Update 3: The FAA is still working to fully restore the Notice to Air Missions system following an outage.⁰⁰The FAA has ordered airlines to pause all domestic departures until 9 a.m. Eastern Time to allow the agency to validate the integrity of flight and safety information.
— The FAA ✈️ (@FAANews) January 11, 2023
Both American Airlines and United confirmed they were experiencing flight disruptions this morning.
— United Airlines (@united) January 11, 2023