Ground stop

A ground stop is an air traffic control measure that slows or halts the flow of an aircraft inbound to a given airport. In other words, a ground stop is the halting of departing aircraft destined for one particular airport or for a specific geographic area. A ground stop is a procedure that requires all aircraft of a certain criteria to remain on the ground. This could be airport specific or perhaps equipment or airspace specific, depending on the exact event that caused the ground stop to occur.

For example, if a ground stop is called for Newark Liberty International Airport, aircraft departing for Newark from other airports will not be given departure clearance until such time that the ground stop in Newark is lifted. This allows, in this example, for Newark to deal with the task at hand preparing for arriving aircraft once the ground stop is lifted.

Ground stops may occur during an operational event, a thunderstorm, due to the danger of wind shear, hail, or another weather-related hazard.

A ground stop does not affect flights en route.

As a possible downstream effect, flights that have not departed their airport of origin could be delayed or cancelled by the carrier. As well as this, pilots and flight crew may be held up by a ground stop, unable to get to the next aircraft that they are supposed to staff on time. Because of this, further flights may be delayed or even canceled with the flight crew that was supposed to staff them stuck or otherwise delayed by a ground stop.

Notable examples
On September 11, 2001, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a ground stop for the entire United States as a precaution against possible additional terrorist attacks by airplane. In addition to grounding international flights which had not yet departed, flights already in the air were either returned to their origin departure airport, or diverted to Canadian airports in Operation Yellow Ribbon. The ground stop was lifted on September 13, when departures from airports within the US also resumed. This was the first ever closer of this magnitude.

In January 2014, Nav Canada issued a ground stop for Toronto Pearson due to cold weather. The airport authority said the extreme cold was causing "equipment freezing and safety issues for employees."

On January 25, 2019, the FAA declared a ground stop at New York's LaGuardia Airport over a staffing shortage caused by the government shutdown.

On January 10, 2022, the FAA issued a ground stop for the West Coast of the US and Hawaii. It is speculated it was related to a North Korean missile test, but no official reason was given by the FAA.

On July 25, 2022, a ground stop was declared at Dallas Love Field after a woman fired a gun into the air near the ticket counters, prompting an evacuation of the terminal.

On January 11, 2023, a nationwide ground stop was declared across the US following the failure of the FAA's NOTAM system.

On February 4, 2023, an immediate ground stop was issued by the FAA on the east coast of the Carolinas, impacting Myrtle Beach International Airport, Charleston International Airport and Wilmington International Airport, due to the 2023 Chinese balloon incident.

On June 7, 2023, the FAA issued a ground stop at LaGuardia International Airport in New York City due to extreme smoke haze in the area from Canadian wildfires.

On July 19, 2024, Delta, American and United Airlines issued a "global ground stop" amid global computer systems outages.