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American Airlines announced on X that a telecommunications issue affecting the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) Dallas-Fort Worth control facility severely limited flights into Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) and Dallas Love Field. The airline allowed customers with affected plans to rebook without change fees.
The FAA said that an outage from a telecommunications provider impacted radar and phone communications at the Dallas Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) facility, which manages airspace for DFW and Dallas Love Field. According to AP News, this failure forced controllers to issue a ground stop, halting inbound flights for hours and disrupting normal operations in one of the busiest aviation regions in the country. The issue highlighted vulnerabilities in the technology infrastructure supporting critical air traffic control functions.
The disruption led to hundreds of delays and cancellations across both major Dallas airports. AP News reported that DFW International Airport saw nearly 700 delayed or canceled flights, while Dallas Love Field experienced around 200 affected operations on September 19. Some passengers were delayed more than two hours, and others faced waits of up to seven hours, creating cascading effects across the national flight network.
