The nationwide US ground stop that froze flights on Friday afternoon is over, but if you are flying between Costa Rica and the United States this weekend, you may still feel it. Ten flights at Juan SantamarÃa International Airport were canceled on Friday, and US airlines were still canceling thousands of flights early Saturday as planes and crews worked their way back into position.
Aeris, which runs the airport outside San José, said 23 flights there were affected on Friday, 12 departures and 11 arrivals. Six departures and four arrivals were canceled. The other 13 flights were moved to overnight and early Saturday morning slots.
The Federal Aviation Administration lifted the order at about 8 p.m. Eastern time on Friday, or 7 p.m. in Costa Rica, after more than four hours. That made it the second-longest nationwide ground stop on record, behind the shutdown that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. When it began, it was only the third nationwide US ground stop ever.
Aeris said operations will return to normal gradually, depending on each airline’s schedule. Guanacaste Airport in Liberia has not published a final count of affected flights. On Friday afternoon, airport officials there said five aircraft were waiting on the ramp for airline instructions, with 23 flights scheduled for Saturday.
The knock-on effects are what matter today. The flight-tracking service FlightAware counted more than 9,100 cancellations and more than 24,500 delays in the United States on Friday, and more than 3,000 additional cancellations by early Saturday. Many US airlines fly a plane into Costa Rica and send the same jet straight back, so a canceled flight in Miami, Houston or Atlanta can mean a canceled departure here.
Check your flight in your airline’s app before you leave for the airport. App and text alerts usually update before departure boards do. Copa Airlines said the US disruption could cause delays and cancellations on its flights to and from the United States and asked passengers to confirm their status on its website or app. United and JetBlue both said they would cancel most of their remaining Friday night flights, a fresh strain for JetBlue’s Costa Rica routes.
If your flight was canceled, look for a travel waiver on your airline’s website. These let you change dates without a fee, which is often faster than waiting in a rebooking line. If you decide not to travel at all, US rules entitle you to a cash refund, even when the cause is out of the airline’s control. Airlines do not have to cover hotels or meals in that case, so keep your receipts if your travel insurance covers delays.
If you are connecting through a US hub, rebook through the airline that sold you the ticket rather than each carrier separately. And if you are heading north, remember that every passenger flying to the United States must now sign a new form, which can slow check-in on a day when lines are already long.
US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said a communications problem had affected all of the country’s Air Route Traffic Control Centers, the facilities that guide planes between airports, and blamed aging equipment. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said there was no evidence of a hostile attack. Duffy said he had asked Congress on Thursday for $30.1 billion to modernize the air traffic control system.
The disruption was the second to hit air travel at Juan SantamarÃa airport in less than a month, after a power failure affected its control tower in October. Costa Rica relies on US gateways for much of its air traffic, and the busy high season is just weeks away, so even a few hours of trouble in US airspace can strand travelers here for a day or more.
