Calgary flights delayed in U.S. as systems outage ground thousands of flights

If you're getting onto a flight Wednesday, you should check your flight status before you leave because a system outage is delaying flights, including here in Calgary.

Flight delays caused by a nationwide systems outage prompted a two-hour-long "groundstop order" by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the U.S. Wednesday morning, which also affected some Calgary departures for American destinations.

The early morning flights to Dallas, Houston, Denver, Las Vegas were all delayed up to an hour.

WestJet confirms six of its flights were among those affected by the outage:

• WS1226 YYZ-MCO;
• WS1228 YYZ-MCO;
• WS1246 YYZ-TPA;
• WS1484 YEG-PSP;
• WS1232 YYZ-FLL; and
• WS1100 YYZ-LAX.

The company say no flights were cancelled.

The FAA says there had been an issue with its Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system ordered all U.S. domestic flights to be grounded for roughly two hours.

The affected system alerts pilots and other flight personnel about hazards and changes at airport facilities, including warnings about runway closures, bird hazards or construction obstacles.

The FAA says these alerts offer information considered essential to flight safety.

While the issue appears to be short-lived in Calgary – as of 7:30 a.m. all outbound flights took off without issue – officials urge passengers to check ahead.

"Check with your airline for current flight information," the airport said on social media. "Normal air traffic operations are resuming gradually across the U.S. following the FAA's nationwide computer system outage."

Canada's major airlines say to expect some hiccups throughout the day on all flights into and out of the U.S.

"The outage will have an effect our transborder operations today, but it is not possible to determine the extent at this point as we do not know the full impact and duration," Air Canada wrote in a statement to CTV News.

"Customers should check their flights before going to the airport. We are putting in place a goodwill policy for affected customers to change their travel plans."

An estimated 4,000 domestic US -flights were initially delayed by the issue and there could be a potential domino effect for flight delays.

U.S. President Joe Biden says he spoke with the transportation minster, ordered an investigation, but the issue is likely not a cyber attack.

The FAA is still investigating the cause of the problem.