FAA Glitch Delays Air Travelers

ATLANTA (TheStreet) -- A computer glitch was causing flight cancellations and delays around the country Thursday, although the specific problem in a Federal Aviation Administration computer system seemed to have been fixed Thursday morning.

"The system is back up, but recovery coupled with weather around the system will likely cause delays of anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour over the day," said David Castelveter, spokesman for the Air Transport Association.

The problem began around 5 a.m. EST, before most departures, and was fixed around 10 a.m.

"We're seeing delays on some flights, but nothing more than 30 minutes," said Morgan Durrant, spokesman for US Airways(LCC). Durrant said the carrier brought in additional staff at its operations control center in Pittsburgh to help with manual processing of flight releases, the area impact by the computer glitch. "There are no major issues at our hubs," Durant said.

Similarly, American(AMR) was also manually processing its flight releases, said spokesman Tim Smith. He said delays were not extreme.

AirTran(AAI) said 38 flights were canceled, and dozens more were delayed as of 9 a.m. Thursday. The carrier requested passengers to check the status of their flights at airtran.com before leaving for the airport. It said passengers could alter Thursday reservations with no penalty.

The problem was apparently most acute at Hartsfield Jackson International airport in Atlanta, The Associated Press reported. "As a result of this morning's FAA flight plan system outage, Delta is continuing to experience some delays and cancellations," said Delta(DAL), in a prepared statement. "Operations are slowly returning to normal and we are working with impacted passengers."

The problem involved a breakdown of the National Airspace Data Interchange Network, a computerized system that enables airlines to file flight plans with the FAA. In response, the system provides airlines with information regarding weather, congestion, taxiway diversions and other potential delays on the specific routes. The breakdown required that carriers fax their flight plans to the FAA, which had to input them manually, resulting in flight delays.