Flights into Florida halted due to traffic issues

On Jan 3, 2023

Shortly after 1 p.m. on Monday, social media began swarming with reports of flights heading into Florida being halted or canceled. The FAA told WESH 2 Monday: “The FAA has slowed the volume of traffic into Florida airspace due to an air traffic computer issue that is being resolved…The ERAM system is a modern computer system at the air traffic centers that handle en route traffic.”Miami International Airport stated that there was a nationwide ground stop to and from Florida due to a “radar data link outage.””It’s been resolved and planes are slowly being allowed to depart,” the statement reads.The hiccup had far-reaching impact, with delays out of Florida airports piling up.Orlando International Airport released the following statement on Twitter:”Due to an FAA control plan in place to help manage air traffic flow in Florida, including MCO, some flights may be affected. While we do not have major impacts at this time, we encourage passengers to reach out to their airlines with any questions.”More than 162,000 people were supposed to come through Orlando International Airport Monday, the busiest in this holiday travel period.They not only deal with the travel rush but also a computer glitch.Flights across the state were either delayed or canceled because of an air traffic computer issue.According to FlightAware, there were 506 delays and 53 cancellations at OIA. The Federal Aviation Administration says it’s fixed now, but an air traffic computer issue caused a mess of delays and cancellations at Florida airports, including OIA. Lauren Hannigan is heading to Columbus, Ohio but her flight is delayed. “I am facing a delay, a very long delay for about three hours,” Hannigan said. “About 50 minutes,” said Joshua Harrison, a student at Winona State University in Minnesota.”So we’ve got like six hours to kill, now I think we’re moving back to 7:42, but it’s been rough,” passenger Allie Perry said. “How rough?” WESH 2’s Gail Paschall-Brown asked.”Very rough. We do not know what to do,” Perry said. At issue was ERAM, which is the En-route Automation Modernization System at air traffic centers that handles en route traffic. The FAA had to reduce air traffic into Florida airspace Monday, which caused delays and cancellations in airports all across the state. “I’m just going to wait and hope my flight takes off,” Hannigan said. “There’s not much else you can do but wait right?” Paschall-Brown said. “Right or shop or eat or whatever,” Hannigan said. “Not much we can do about it,” Harrison said. “Are you going to be okay with school and everything, hopefully getting back to school on time? “Yes we (planned) the flight early just in case there were issues,” Harrison said. The FAA says it is working toward safely returning to a normal air traffic rate in Florida.Meanwhile, officials at Orlando International heard from operations that all flight activity is back to normal but cautioned passengers to check with their airlines with any…