U.S. Nationwide Flight Ground Stop Jolts After-Hours Trading

Communications outage at nationwide air traffic control centers

Airline shares fall, cybersecurity stocks rise

A communications outage in the U.S. air traffic control system briefly halted departing flights at airports across the country. The disruption pushed exchange-traded funds tracking major U.S. stock indexes and airline shares lower in after-hours trading.

On Nov. 13, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered a nationwide ground stop for departing flights in the afternoon, citing exceptional circumstances and safety concerns. It was the first nationwide departure halt in the U.S. since a computer system failure in January 2023.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said 22 air route traffic control centers nationwide were affected by the communications problem. FAA technicians were investigating the cause and working to restore service.

After news of the disruption broke, an ETF tracking the S&P 500 fell as much as 0.5% in after-hours trading. An ETF tied to the Nasdaq 100 dropped as much as 0.8%. Among airline stocks, United Airlines fell 1.2%, JetBlue Airways slid 2.4%, and American Airlines dropped 1.7%.

Cybersecurity shares rose instead. Palo Alto Networks and CrowdStrike each gained 2%, while Zscaler added 1%.