Both airports were returned to normal levels by Saturday afternoon, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
Fort Worth-based American Airlinesoperates its central hub at DFW Airport, while Southwest Airlinesis headquartered at Love Field and operates 18 of the airport’s 20 gates.
Here’s what we know so far:
WHAT HAPPENED?
The FAA issued a ground stop for DFW Airport and Love Field due to a telephone outage, which was attributed to equipment from Dallas-based Frontier Communications. Inbound and departing flights were effectively halted during the outage, lasting throughout the evening.
The agency also placed blame with aerospace and defense company L3Harris, which it said “failed to ensure that redundancies in the system functioned properly.” The company is an FAA contractor.
American Airlines later said the outage occurred after two fiber optic cables were accidentally cut, which impacted primary and secondary paths of data that support the FAA’s radars, radio frequencies and computer systems in the Dallas area.
WERE AIRPLANES ALREADY IN THE AIR AT RISK DURING THE OUTAGE?
That remains unclear. American Airlines Chief Operating Officer David Seymour said in a letter to employees, “Of note, at no time during these system outages in the DFW metroplex was the safety of our aircraft, crew or customers compromised. The FAA’s quick response to these outages ensured that positive operational control was always maintained.”
However, it’s not clear if any other aircraft near DFW Airport and Love Field’s airspace experienced any issues. The FAA did not immediately respond to a request for more information on Monday.
WHAT IS FRONTIER COMMUNICATIONS?
Dallas-based Frontier Communications is a local Internet service provider.
The company relocated its headquarters from Connecticut to Dallas in 2023 and was acquired by telecom giant Verizon in 2024 for $20 billion. Its headquarters address is 1919 McKinney Ave. in Dallas.
HOW WAS AIR SERVICE AFFECTED AT BOTH AIRPORTS AFTER THE OUTAGE?
There were more than 1,000 delays and over 600 cancellations combined Friday and Saturday at DFW Airport, according to FlightAware data. American Airlines said in a letter to employees that it had to cancel over 600 flights between the two days. At Love Field, the impact appeared to be lighter, with the airport having over 200 delays and one cancellation Friday and Saturday, according to FlightAware.HAVE SIMILAR OUTAGES OCCURRED BEFORE?
Yes. Earlier this year, a Philadelphia air traffic control facility experienced two separate outages less than two weeks apart that knocked out radar and communications. The outages, which affected Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, occurred between late April and early May, according to Wall Street Journal reports.
WHAT DOES THE FAA PLAN TO DO IN RESPONSE TO THE OUTAGE?
Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Transportation and its leader, Sean Duffy, announced a plan that would involve a complete overhaul of the existing air traffic control systemin favor of a “brand new, state-of-the-art” system. His department said the FAA plans to replace infrastructure such as radar, software, hardware and telecommunications networks in order to match modern travel.
On Saturday, he used the Dallas outage to once again emphasize the plan.
“This is EXACTLY why @POTUS and I are hard at work to build a brand new air traffic control system,“ Duffy said on X. ”We will make disruptions like these a thing of the past."
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