Fiji Airways monitors US ground stop amid possible flight disruptions

Fiji Airways is monitoring a nationwide ground stop in the United States after a communications issue affected air traffic control centres, with possible delays or schedule changes to its services.

The airline said flights FJ810 to Los Angeles and FJ870 to San Francisco, which departed Nadi on Friday, November 13, had landed safely.

Return flights FJ811 from Los Angeles and FJ871 from San Francisco remained scheduled to depart tonight. Fiji Airways said the situation was fluid and delays or changes to flight schedules were possible.

The US Federal Aviation Administration ordered departing aircraft to remain on the ground until further notice. Inbound international flights were being managed on a case-by-case basis.

The ground stop followed a telecommunications outage affecting the FAA’s regional air traffic control centres, which direct aircraft between airports. Flights already in the air were accounted for and continued to land, while officials investigated the disruption.

Fiji Airways encouraged passengers to check its official social media channels, the Travel Alerts section of its website and their emails for updates. The airline said the safety of its guests and crew remained its highest priority.