AICM Flights to US Return to Normal After FAA Halt Hit 73 Flights
Flights between Mexico City's AICM and the US are returning to normal after the FAA ground stop affected 73 flights and 10,293 passengers. What travelers should do.
Flights between Mexico City International Airport (AICM) and the United States are returning to normal on Saturday, the airport said, after US authorities lifted restrictions on takeoffs that had shut down commercial air traffic across the country. AICM asked travelers to check the status of their flight directly with their airline and to follow official channels for updates.
The halt reached Mexico City on Friday. By 10 p.m. that night, AICM counted 73 affected flights, three more than the 70 it had first estimated, and 10,293 passengers caught up in the disruption.
How many Mexico City flights were hit
AICM said the restrictions ordered by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) affected flights on every airline that connects the two countries. Its Friday night tally, as reported by El Financiero:
- 73 flights affected in total
- 29 flights delayed
- 44 flights canceled
- 10,293 passengers affected
The airport said it would keep working with authorities and airlines to help stranded passengers and get service back to normal.
What it means for travelers this weekend
Normal operations at AICM do not mean every delay is over. Inside the United States, airlines canceled thousands of flights on Saturday while they worked through the backlog, leaving passengers hunting for seats and disrupting trips around the world, according to AP reporting carried by El Financiero.
FAA chief Bryan Bedford said US air travel would be fully restored by the end of Sunday, two days after what he described as the longest nationwide halt to air traffic in 25 years. He warned that flights would still see delays and cancellations on Saturday, but said “the worst is over.”
US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told reporters on Saturday that flying is safe, El Universal reported, while also warning of more cancellations and delays. For passengers with a US trip booked from Mexico City, the airport’s advice is to confirm the flight with the airline before heading to the terminal.
What caused the shutdown
Duffy said a contractor had replaced a section of the system’s old copper cable with new fiber cable, and that the work somehow overloaded the system. The result was Friday’s halt, which lasted more than four hours. Officials in President Donald Trump’s administration said the work caused intermittent outages in communications and radar.
Authorities are investigating whether the cause was contractor incompetence or a faulty router, Duffy said. The contractor, L3Harris Technologies Inc., had not responded to requests for comment or issued a public statement.
The nationwide stop was the first since January 2023, when a different FAA computer system that sends notices to pilots failed, and only the second since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Sources: El Financiero, El Universal
