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Biden-Harris Administration Announces Final Rule Requiring Automatic Refunds of Airline Tickets and Ancillary Service Fees

Rule makes it easy to get money back for cancelled or significantly changed flights, significantly delayed checked bags, and additional services not provided  

WASHINGTON – The Biden-Harris Administration today announced that the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has issued a final rule that requires airlines to promptly provide passengers with automatic cash refunds when owed. The new rule makes it easy for passengers to obtain refunds when airlines cancel or significantly change their flights, significantly delay their checked bags, or fail to provide the extra services they purchased.

“Passengers deserve to get their money back when an airline owes them - without headaches or haggling,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg . “Our new rule sets a new standard to require airlines to promptly provide cash refunds to their passengers.”  

The final rule creates certainty for consumers by defining the specific circumstances in which airlines must provide refunds. Prior to this rule, airlines were permitted to set their own standards for what kind of flight changes warranted a refund. As a result, refund policies differed from airline to airline, which made it difficult for passengers to know or assert their refund rights. DOT also received complaints of some airlines revising and applying less consumer-friendly refund policies during spikes in flight cancellations and changes. 

Under the rule, passengers are entitled to a refund for:

• Canceled or significantly changed flights: Passengers will be entitled to a refund if their flight is canceled or significantly changed, and they do not accept alternative transportation or travel credits offered. For the first time, the rule defines “significant change.” Significant changes to a flight include departure or arrival times that are more than 3 hours domestically and 6 hours internationally; departures or arrivals from a different airport; increases in the number of connections; instances where passengers are downgraded to a lower class of service; or connections at different airports or flights on different planes that are less accessible or accommodating to a person with a disability.  
• Significantly delayed baggage return: Passengers who file a mishandled baggage report will be entitled to a refund of their checked bag fee if it is not delivered within 12 hours of their domestic flight arriving at the gate, or 15-30 hours of their international flight arriving at the gate, depending on the length of the flight.  
• Extra services not provided: Passengers will be entitled to a refund for the fee they paid for an extra service — such as Wi-Fi, seat selection, or inflight entertainment — if an airline fails to provide this service.

DOT’s final rule also makes it simple and straightforward for passengers to receive the money they are owed. Without this rule, consumers have to navigate a patchwork of cumbersome processes to request and receive a refund — searching through airline websites to figure out how make the request, filling out extra “digital paperwork,” or at times waiting for hours on the phone. In addition, passengers would receive a travel credit or voucher by default from some airlines instead of getting their money back, so they could not use their refund to rebook on another airline when their flight was changed or cancelled without navigating a cumbersome request process.  

The final rule improves the passenger experience by requiring refunds to be:

• Automatic: Airlines must automatically issue refunds without passengers having to explicitly request them or jump through hoops.   
• Prompt: Airlines and ticket agents must issue refunds within seven business days of refunds becoming due for credit card purchases and 20 calendar days for other payment methods.  
• Cash or original form of payment: Airlines and ticket agents must provide refunds in cash or whatever original payment method the individual used to make the purchase, such as credit card or airline miles. Airlines may not substitute vouchers, travel credits, or other forms of compensation unless the passenger affirmatively chooses to accept alternative compensation.    
• Full amount: Airlines and ticket agents must provide full refunds of the ticket purchase price, minus the value of any portion of transportation already used. The refunds must include all government-imposed taxes and fees and airline-imposed fees, regardless of whether the taxes or fees are refundable to airlines.

The final rule also requires airlines to provide prompt notifications to consumers affected by a cancelled or significantly changed flight of their right to a refund of the ticket and extra service fees, as well as any related policies.

In addition, in instances where consumers are restricted by a government or advised by a medical professional not to travel to, from, or within the United States due to a serious communicable disease, the final rule requires that airlines must provide travel credits or vouchers. Consumers may be required to provide documentary evidence to support their request. Travel vouchers or credits provided by airlines must be transferrable and valid for at least five years from the date of issuance.

The Department received a significant number of complaints against airlines and ticket agents for refusing to provide a refund or for delaying processing of refunds during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. At the height of the pandemic in 2020, refund complaints peaked at 87 percent of all air travel service complaints received by DOT. Refund problems continue to make up a substantial share of the complaints that DOT receives.

DOT’s Historic Record of Consumer Protection Under the Biden-Harris Administration

Under the Biden-Harris Administration and Secretary Buttigieg, DOT has advanced the largest expansion of airline passenger rights, issued the biggest fines against airlines for failing consumers, and returned more money to passengers in refunds and reimbursements than ever before in the Department’s history.

• Thanks to pressure from Secretary Buttigieg and DOT’s flightrights.gov dashboard, all 10 major U.S. airlines guarantee free rebooking and meals, and nine guarantee hotel accommodations when an airline issue causes a significant delay or cancellation. These are new commitments the airlines added to their customer service plans that DOT can legally ensure they adhere to and are displayed on flightrights.gov .  
• Since President Biden took office, DOT has helped return more than $3 billion in refunds and reimbursements owed to airline passengers – including over $600 million to passengers affected by the Southwest Airlines holiday meltdown in 2022.   
• Under Secretary Buttigieg, DOT has issued over $164 million in penalties against airlines for consumer protection violations. Between 1996 and 2020, DOT collectively issued less than $71 million in penalties against airlines for consumer protection violations.  
• DOT recently launched a new partnership with a bipartisan group of state attorneys general to fast-track the review of consumer complaints, hold airlines accountable, and protect the rights of the traveling public.  
• In 2023, the flight cancellation rate in the U.S. was a record low at under 1.2% — the lowest rate of flight cancellations in over 10 years despite a record amount of air travel.  
• DOT is undertaking its first ever industry-wide review of airline privacy practices and its first review of airline loyalty programs.

In addition to finalizing the rules to require automatic refunds and protect against surprise fees, DOT is also pursuing rulemakings that would:

• Propose to ban family seating junk fees and guarantee that parents can sit with their children for no extra charge when they fly. Before President Biden and Secretary Buttigieg pressed airlines last year, no airline committed to guaranteeing fee-free family seating. Now, four airlines guarantee fee-free family seating, and the Department is working on its family seating junk fee ban proposal.  
• Propose to make passenger compensation and amenities mandatory so that travelers are taken care of when airlines cause flight delays or cancellations.   
• Expand the rights for passengers who use wheelchairs and ensure that they can travel safely and with dignity . The comment period on this proposed rule closes on May 13, 2024.

The final rule on refunds can be found at https://www.transportation.gov/airconsumer/latest-news and at regulations.gov , docket number DOT-OST-2022-0089. There are different implementation periods in this final rule ranging from six months for airlines to provide automatic refunds when owed to 12 months for airlines to provide transferable travel vouchers or credits when consumers are unable to travel for reasons related to a serious communicable disease. 

Information about airline passenger rights, as well as DOT’s rules, guidance and orders, can be found at   https://www.transportation.gov/airconsumer .

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What a summer of hellish flights taught us about flying now

Easy air travel is a thing of the past.

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More than 240 million people in the US flew somewhere between June and Labor Day, according to the Transportation Security Administration — about 7 million more than in summer 2019.

Air travel is back. But it’s most definitely not back to normal.

Horror stories of interminable delays and vacation-wrecking cancellations came from every corner of the country this summer — caused not just by storms and extreme heat, but also labor shortages. Befuddlement at how much pricier it has become to fly mounted, too.

For travelers, taking to the skies feels like it has reached a nadir. Not only were there bigger crowds and more delays to contend with at airports, but when delays happened, they caused more stress than usual. A recent Forbes Advisor survey of 2,000 travelers found that 61 percent had experienced a flight delay or cancellation this summer, and most of that 61 percent lost some money due to the delay — cash lost on prepaid hotel rooms, missed cruises, parking fees, and even kenneling pets.

Some of the problems are a temporary bump in the runway as the industry gets used to high numbers of travelers again, but some of the most deep-seated causes of passenger disgruntlement might be here to stay.

“Things that may not have upended the entire system in the past — thunderstorms on the East Coast in the afternoon — now seem to have ripple effects throughout the entire system,” says John Breyault, who is the vice president of fraud policy at the National Consumers League and leads its airline advocacy program. “I think that’s symptomatic of a system that is really overtaxed in every way.”

Here’s what we learned from this summer’s travel debacles:

Climate change is straining a fragile industry

Mass flight delays and cancellations happen because of bad weather. Thunderstorms, hurricanes, tornadoes, or even extreme heat aren’t new, but record-breaking temperatures and more frequent weather disasters in the past year added stress on the air travel industry. In December 2022 and July 2023, a series of storms across the country caused a torrent of flight delays that stranded thousands of passengers during busy holiday seasons. Last month, as Hurricane Idalia made landfall in Florida, more than 1,000 flights were delayed across the South.

The weather this summer did more than create delays; it laid bare just how unprepared the aviation industry is for handling any shocks. Weaknesses that might have gone unnoticed by passengers before — like aging, sparse fleets, or difficult conditions for workers, such as extreme heat — suddenly became glaringly obvious, adding to the cascading effects of bad weather and creating disruptions lasting for days. The Bureau of Transportation Statistics says that consumer complaints against airlines have soared by more than 300 percent since 2019. (The most common type of complaint was not getting the refund for canceled flights, which airlines are required to give. The second most common was flight delays and cancellations.)

A single hour-long delay might not seem like a huge deal, but the problem is amplified when airlines are overscheduled — one late flight bumps all the others after it — and when there aren’t enough planes or staff across various airports to accommodate a sudden change in plans. In its most recent earnings call , United Airlines said that its thousands of delays and cancellations in the leadup to the Fourth of July holiday had cost the company 1 point of profit margin for the entire quarter. According to trade association Airlines for America , flight delays in 2022 likely cost the industry billions of dollars.

“We are getting a very real preview of what our new normal will be like for summer travel,” says Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst and president of Atmosphere Research Group. “The first storm tosses Humpty Dumpty off the wall, but sequential storms make it harder to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.”

The labor shortage is sky high

There’s still a widespread shortage of workers in the industry, including pilots, flight attendants, airport workers, and air traffic controllers. Airline employment data from June 2023 shows higher numbers than June 2019, but the industry is still clamoring for more workers. Currently, according to one estimate, US airlines need 8,000 more pilots to fulfill demand. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates there will be more than 16,000 job openings for pilots and flight attendants each year between now and 2032.

A labor shortfall becomes especially apparent when something goes wrong: When there aren’t enough people to fill crucial jobs, everything has to slow down, or else risk disaster. A recent New York Times report revealed that near-crashes between planes taking off and landing have become more common because of mistakes by air traffic controllers, who are overstrained amid chronic staff shortages. The Federal Aviation Administration has hired 1,500 air traffic controllers this year, but still wants to hire 1,800 more next year.

Flight delays weren’t just more common. They were more irritating.

While there have been more delays this year than usual, cancellations are actually down. According to data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (which currently only has numbers through May), 20.8 percent of flights were delayed so far in 2023, compared to 18.8 percent in 2019. The average length of delay in 2023 is 53 minutes, just 3 minutes longer than in 2019, according to flight tracking site Flight Aware.

So what’s creating such horrid air travel vibes? One possibility is that there are more travelers now than in 2019, but fewer commercial aircraft are flying , meaning passengers have fewer chances to reroute or get on the next flight when delays happen, leaving them stuck in limbo longer. When over 15,000 flights were axed during the infamous Southwest cancellations last winter , not only outdated tech, but also aggressive overscheduling created a huge domino effect on the system. Delays can have serious consequences for travelers, not just causing people to miss important life events, but in some cases limiting their access to food and water while they’re stuck on a plane for hours. American Airlines was recently fined a record $4 million for hours-long tarmac delays during which it did not allow passengers to deplane.

Extra fees feel unavoidable, and they’re here to stay

Over 22 million more travelers crowded the airports this summer than last — some of them flying for the first time in years — and many were freshly reminded of what’s now the industry standard of nickel-and-diming passengers for checking bags and choosing seats. In the early 2000s, it was mostly ultra-low-cost carriers charging extra to check luggage. But since then, even full-service US carriers are creating basic economy fares that tack on bag and seat fees.

“Drip pricing” for services that used to be included with airfare only piles onto the exasperation travelers feel. According to an analysis by the airline consultancy IdeaWorks , top US airlines demand $33 on average for a preferred seat (which is usually closer to the front of the plane), $48 for an exit-row seat (where there’s more leg room) and $18 for a last-row seat. These are “junk fees” to consumers and the White House , but to airlines, they’re a cash cow. Take United, which made a record $1 billion in revenue just from bags and seats fees from April to June. Having multiple types of seat upgrades “is a key driver of our revenue growth,” United executive Andrew Nocella said in the company’s most recent earnings call . And just look at baggage fees : Last year, top airlines made about $6.7 billion in baggage fees, a spike from the $5.7 billion they made in 2019, despite more flyers that year.

Airline perks and deals were harder to come by

The race to the bottom isn’t going unnoticed by travelers. Flying is becoming more stratified; class divisions feel more heightened than ever, and having frequent flyer status with an airline is more valuable. Airlines know this too, and in response to an inundation of passengers attaining “elite” status , many have upped the threshold to join, limiting airport lounge access to higher membership levels or raising lounge fees.

“I have spoken with airline managers and executives who have said that part of the reason that the standard coach product is so bad is intentional,” says Harteveldt. “They want to get more people paying extra and trading up to a better product. America can claim to be egalitarian, but that claim ends at the airport door.”

Airfare has dropped since reaching new highs last summer, but is still elevated. “This has been one of the worst years I can ever remember for flight deals,” says Ben Mutzabaugh, senior aviation editor at The Points Guy, a popular travel site. Meanwhile, leisure travelers with disposable income have shown a surprising willingness to spend. “A lot of times they’re willing to just buy business-class tickets — we see much more of that now than we did before the pandemic.”

The stark contrast in travel experience between the haves and have-nots may be fomenting resentment on one end and arrogance on the other. Airports and even flights are becoming an all-too-common setting for viral videos of travelers losing their tempers.

Reports of “unruly passengers” — people airlines report for causing a disturbance on flights — skyrocketed amid mask mandates in 2021, almost reaching 6,000 reports , according to Federal Aviation Administration data. In 2019, there were just 1,161.

This is the new normal — unless airlines are forced to change

Some of the annoyances travelers experienced this summer will remain unavoidable in coming months. Increasingly frequent bad weather will keep walloping flights ; that’s the reality of the climate crisis.

Airlines have learned some lessons from this summer’s onslaught of demand. The biggest are to hire more workers and have more spare planes on the ground in case of emergencies, but also to leave more slack in scheduling flights. Airlines have been on a hiring spree, and experts say the worst of the pilot shortage will probably be over by next summer.

But some of the other bugbears of air travel — like airlines’ worst anti-consumer practices — aren’t likely to go away without antitrust action. Much of what we hate about taking to the skies today can be blamed on industry consolidation after the airlines were deregulated in the late 1970s. A handful of airlines — United, Delta, American, and Southwest — control about 80 percent of the domestic market. “Since the government let the industry become a permanent oligopoly, there is zero risk that competition will discipline fee increases,” Hubert Horan, a transportation analyst, told Vox in an email.

The Biden administration has signaled a desire to rein in airlines’ worst practices, voicing support for a policy requiring airlines to disclose all fees from the beginning of a fare search rather than showing a deceptive base fare that will significantly rise as seat and bag fees are added. The administration has also urged Congress to mandate airlines to seat families together for free. But these rules don’t actually exist yet. (A few airlines have voluntarily offered free family seating.)

Under Secretary Pete Buttigieg, the Department of Transportation has revved up its enforcement actions; not only did it order American to pay up, the department has also been levying millions in fines to airlines that didn’t refund customers in a timely manner. Breyault, of the National Consumers League, says that these are steps in the right direction but that the DOT hasn’t used the full force of its authority. By the NCL’s accounting, the frequency of enforcement and the amount of money fined has decreased over the years. Breyault calls even the historic $4 million fine “a rounding error to a company the size of American.”

A flight delay doesn’t have to entirely ruin a vacation, and maybe we don’t have to pay an arm and a leg just to have a pleasant flying experience. But if flying during the high season continues to be awful, that could turn off customers and ultimately dampen demand.

“I don’t think that this is sustainable,” says Breyault.

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FAA outage: Damaged database file took down safety system, grounding flights

What you need to know about the faa computer outage.

• Normal air traffic operations were resuming across the U.S. on Wednesday, the Federal Aviation Administration said, after an overnight computer outage grounded thousands of flights .
• The FAA said its Notice to Air Missions system, or NOTAM, which contains information essential to workers involved in flight operation, had "failed."
• A corrupted and damaged database file in the system was blamed for the stoppage, the FAA said.
• More than 1,300 flights were canceled Wednesday and 10,000 were delayed Wednesday.

Over 1,300 cancellations, 10,000 delays in U.S. Wednesday

Phil Helsel

There were 1,343 flights canceled within, into or leaving the U.S. on Wednesday, the day a computer outage halted all departures in the country.

The number of delayed flights in the U.S. on Wednesday was 10,060, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware .

New York’s LaGuardia Airport had 50% of its departing plans delayed, according to the website. Denver International had 60% of its departing flights delayed.

The Federal Aviation Administration said a damaged database file was found as it investigated the cause of the outage to its Notice to Air Missions system. “There is no evidence of a cyber attack,” the agency said.

Aviation warning system that crashed was already a pain for pilots

Kevin Collier

The U.S. aviation warning system that crashed for more than an hour Wednesday traces its origins to ocean-faring ships and has been under continuous reforms for years, experts say.

At least one aviation industry group has called for it to be replaced altogether.

The Federal Aviation Administration  grounded all flights  blaming an unspecified failure in the Notice to Air Missions system. NOTAM issues a near-constant stream of acronyms and abbreviations to alert pilots to a host of potential dangers, from parachuters and bad weather to legal airspace restrictions and flocks of birds.

By Wednesday evening, the agency had pinpointed the problem as a damaged database file, and there is no evidence of a cyberattack, it said.

Regardless of the cause, the NOTAM system has long been a source of frustration for pilots and others in the aviation industry, who say it overloads them with information that’s irrelevant to their flights and makes it difficult to identify actually useful information.

Read the full story here .

More than 1,300 flights still delayed across U.S.

Tim Stelloh

More than 1,300 flights were delayed and nearly 100 were canceled Wednesday afternoon after a corrupted file knocked out a government system that provides pilots with critical information, halting flights across the country overnight.

Flights resumed Wednesday morning . According to the tracking site FlightAware , Denver International Airport led the country with delays, at 111.

Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina was second, with 95.

The average departure and arrival delays were under an hour at both airports, according to the site.

Nearly 10,000 flights had been delayed across the country Wednesday, according to the site. More than 1,300 had been canceled.

Corrupted file affected critical FAA system, official says

Jay Blackman

A corrupted file affected both the primary and backup systems of the Federal Aviation Administration’s Notice to Air Missions system, a senior government official said. 

The failure of the critical system prompted a ground halt at airports across the country early Wednesday before passengers slowly began boarding flights again.

It isn’t clear how the file was corrupted. An investigation continues.

Buttigieg: 'No direct indication of any kind of external or nefarious activity,' but not ruling it out

Julianne McShane

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told NBC News' Andrea Mitchell that "there is no direct indication of any kind of external or nefarious activity, but we are not yet prepared to rule that out."

He added that officials are working "to see exactly what was going on inside the files that were in the system, leading to this irregularity."

"This is an incredibly complex system," Buttigieg said later in the interview. "So glitches or complications happen all the time, but we can’t allow them to ever lead to this level of disruption, and we won’t ever allow them to lead to a safety problem."

The Transportation Department forced airlines to pay out millions of dollars in refunds last year for canceled and delayed flights , but Buttigieg stopped short of agreeing that it should refund travelers after the FAA outage when Mitchell posed the question.

"We’re not for-profit companies selling tickets that the way an airline is," he said. "Our responsibility is to make sure that everybody is safe, and we’re always going to err on the side of safety. ... When there’s an issue on the government side of the house, when there’s an issue in FAA, we’re going to own it, we’re going to understand it, and we’re going to make very clear what’s needed in order to fix it and go after that plan."

Largest pilots union 'encourages patience' as delays mount

The largest pilots union in North America encouraged travelers Wednesday to be patient after the nationwide ground halt on flights as data from the tracking site FlightAware.com showed ongoing delays.

“We are in regular contact with the Federal Aviation Administration and will continue to work with them and airline managements to ensure our aviation system continues to be as safe as possible," the Air Line Pilots Association International said in a statement.

The group represents 67,000 pilots at 40 U.S. and Canadian airlines.

FlightAware showed delays of as many as 48% of flights for Southwest Airlines, 44% for American Airlines and 38% for United Airlines and Delta Air Lines.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the American Airlines pilots union said he respected the decision to issue the nationwide stop, as it was most likely necessary to ensure safe travel.

Still, "this shouldn't be happening," said Dennis Tajer, a spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association. "This is a learning moment — but we have to get those moments down to a minimum."

This traveler is rushing home to perform plastic surgery

Deon J. Hampton

Performing plastic surgery was on the line if Dr. Robert Feczko didn’t make it home to North Carolina. 

His ski trip to Colorado ended as his Delta fight from Denver International Airport to Atlanta was delayed two hours. Complicating matters, Feczko, 37, would most likely miss his connecting flight to Raleigh, North Carolina, and push back the final stretch of his trip — a 90-minute drive home to Greenville, North Carolina.

Feczko said that he wanted to feel fresh to perform surgery Thursday morning but that before he left Colorado, he wasn’t sure whether he’d even make it home.

“I’m more concerned about my flight routing through Atlanta,” Feczko said, waiting in line to check his ski equipment. “I’m worried about tomorrow. I have a surgery at 7:30 a.m.”

Canada's air navigation service provider experiencing NOTAM outage

Canada's air navigation service provider, Nav Canada, was experiencing the same computer system outage the FAA did, it tweeted shortly after 12:30 p.m. ET.

"NAV CANADA's Canadian NOTAM entry system is currently experiencing an outage affecting newly issued NOTAMs, and we are working to restore function," the statement read. "We are not currently experiencing any delays related to this outage. We are assessing impacts to our operations and will provide updates as soon as they are available."

Vanessa Adams, a spokesperson for NAV Canada, said in a statement that the outage began at about 10:20 a.m. ET and that power was restored at about 1:15 p.m.

"We are still investigating the root cause of the failure," Adam said. "At this time, we do not believe the cause is related to the FAA outage experienced earlier today."

As of about 3 p.m. ET, both Toronto Pearson International Airport and Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport had average departure delays of 28 minutes (and increasing), while Ottawa International Airport had average arrival delays of 32 minutes.

Earlier Wednesday, Air Canada tweeted that all customers traveling to and from the U.S. should check the status of their flights on its website after the FAA outage.

More than a quarter of Air Canada flights — 123 — were delayed as of 3 p.m. ET, FlightAware showed, while 13 were canceled.

A delayed flight leaves one traveler in tears — and out of $500

At Denver International Airport, the computer outage delayed Mine Mizrak’s Southwest flight to Los Angeles and forced her to miss her connecting Turkish Airlines flight to her native Istanbul, where she planned to reunite with family.

Mizrak, a mechanical engineer, moved to Denver last year, leaving behind her mother and other relatives, whom she hasn't seen since.

“I’ve been looking forward to this for the past month,” she said, sitting down in a chair counting the time until her next flight departs. Once she does, her trip will become pricier.

While Mizrak, 25, paid $1,000 in airfare, she said, she’ll have to pay an additional $500 once she lands in California to ensure she gets home because of her missed flight at LAX.

“I’ve been crying, because I could’ve spent that money on something else in Istanbul,” Mizrak said. She said Turkish Airlines won’t reimburse her for the money because the outages didn’t affect international flights.

A Turkish Airlines spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to an inquiry.

Buttigieg says no 'nefarious' cause found so far

American airlines, delta resume operations with ongoing delays.

American Airlines and Delta Air Lines resumed operations late Wednesday morning after the FAA outage, although with significant delays.

At 10:45 a.m. ET, more than 950 American Airlines mainline and regional flights had departed, according to information provided by the airline. 

As of 12:30 p.m. ET, just under 1,200 American Airlines flights were delayed, amounting to 40% of its flights, and more than 180 had been canceled, amounting to 6% of its flights, FlightAware reported.

In a statement, American Airlines said it was continuing to “closely monitor” the FAA outage and was “working to minimize further disruption to our customers and operation.” Customers whose flights were affected by the outage could rebook their travel for Wednesday and Thursday “without any additional fees,” the airline said, directing travelers to its website or its app for the latest flight information.

Delta was slightly less affected than American, with just over 1,000 flights, or 35%, delayed and 58, or 2%, canceled as of 12:30 p.m. ET, according to FlightAware.

Nearly half of Southwest flights delayed just weeks after mass cancellations

Nearly half of Southwest Airlines flights were delayed as of about 11:15 a.m. ET, according to FlightAware, making the already beleaguered carrier one of the most affected by the morning's outage.

More than 1,700 Southwest flights were delayed, amounting to 45% of its overall flights.

The latest delays come just weeks after the airline canceled thousands of flights in the travel-heavy days after Christmas, which it blamed on "operational challenges” following days of  severe winter weather .

In a statement provided to NBC News, Southwest Airlines spokesperson Dan Landson said the airline anticipates "some schedule adjustments will be made throughout the day."

"As always, we encourage Southwest Customers to check their flight status at  Southwest.com  or via our mobile app," Landson continued. "We’ve also posted a  Travel Advisory  on our website to highlight the flexible rebooking options being offered to Customers."

Chart: See the spread of flight delays Wednesday

Nigel Chiwaya

JoElla Carman

Jasmine Cui

Ground stops lifted at Chicago airports, though delays continue

Ground stops have been lifted at Chicago's O'Hare and Midway international airports, the Chicago Department of Aviation said in a statement shortly after 10 a.m.

"Residual delays or cancellations will likely continue throughout the day as a result of this morning’s outage," it said, adding that travelers should continue to check their flight status before heading to the airports.

As of about 10:45 a.m. ET, O'Hare was reporting average arrival delays of an hour and 16 minutes (and decreasing), and average departure delays of an hour and 39 minutes (and increasing), according to FlightAware . More than 200 of its flights — 23% — were delayed, and 39 flights were canceled.

Midway was experiencing average arrival delays of 48 minutes (and decreasing) and departure delays of an hour and 51 minutes (and decreasing), according to the tracking website . More than 40% of its flights — 116 — were delayed, and 22 were canceled.

FAA outage was a 'catastrophic system failure,' U.S. Travel Association CEO says

Wednesday's FAA computer outage was a "catastrophic system failure" and "a clear sign that America’s transportation network desperately needs significant upgrades," according to the head of the U.S. Travel Association.

"Americans deserve an end-to-end travel experience that is seamless and secure. And our nation’s economy depends on a best-in-class air travel system," said Geoff Freeman, the president and CEO of the nonprofit and advocacy group representing more than 1,100 member organizations in the travel industry.

"We call on federal policymakers to modernize our vital air travel infrastructure to ensure our systems are able to meet demand safely and efficiently,” he added in a statement.

Senior law enforcement official: No evidence of cyberattack

Ken Dilanian

A senior law enforcement official told NBC News that the FBI has seen no evidence that a cyberattack caused the computer outage that grounded thousands of flights.

Cyber security experts say the most common cause of problems like the one Wednesday is a bad software update.

What is NOTAM, the system that had an outage causing a nationwide flight fiasco

Most people will never have heard of "NOTAM," but it is the reason thousands of travelers were stuck in airports or stewing over delayed or canceled flights Wednesday.

The acronym stands for "Notice to Air Missions," and refers to the computer system that distributes "information essential to personnel concerned with flight operations but not known far enough in advance to be publicized by other means," according to a webpage on the Federal Aviation Administration website. (The page was no longer accessible shortly after 9:30 a.m. ET.)

The notices flag abnormalities such as "runways being closed for maintenance, ground stations being out, construction cranes that may be in the proximity of a runway," NBC aviation analyst Capt. John Cox said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe."

The notices are written in a specific format with "a unique language characterized by the use of specialized contractions" standardized by the International Civil Aviation Organization, according to the FAA . To the untrained eye, the notices look like a random series of letters and numbers.

“It’s a pretty extensive list that the crews get just before departure,” Cox said. “For this NOTAM system to be out — I don’t ever remember it failing before, and I’ve been flying 53 years, so it really is unusual.”

Buttigieg says DOT will seek to learn 'root causes' of meltdown

David K. Li

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg vowed that his agency will get to the "root causes" of the massive system meltdown that grounded flights across America.

Wednesday's FAA debacle is the latest airline headache that's impacted mass numbers of U.S. travelers. Buttigieg on Tuesday said his department would be holding Southwest Airlines accountable for its holiday season cancellations.

More than 540 Delta flights delayed, 14 canceled

More than 540 Delta flights were delayed as of 9:13 a.m. ET Wednesday, amounting to 19% of the overall, while 14 had been canceled, according to FlightAware.

The airline said in a tweet it was "safely focused on managing our operation during this morning’s FAA ground stop for all carriers."

Fiancé called just as he was about to board flight to reunite them

Henry Austin

After six weeks apart, Wyatt Cosich was about to board the plane taking him home to see his fiancé, Samantha Martinez, when she called and told him about thousands of flights being grounded.

Cosich, 22, told NBC News by telephone Wednesday that he was lining up to get on the plane at San Antonio International Airport, set to take off at 6:15 a.m. local time (7:15 a.m. ET), when Martinez, 23, said they would have to be separated for a little while longer.

“I was really looking forward to seeing her,” Cosich said of Martinez, adding that he had traveled to Texas from their home in Newton, North Carolina, for a job opportunity. He added the pair were getting married Sept. 9.

“There about five gates and around 200 to 300 people here,” he said, adding that airport staff had been providing regular updates to passengers, although most of the time they had been saying, “no more news.”

Unlike some passengers who he said had been getting frustrated with the delays, Cosich said he was calm and while it was unclear when and how he would get home, he praised the airport staff for their professionalism: “They’ve been great.”

FAA says ground stop has been lifted

Jason Abbruzzese

American Airlines: 'We're closely monitoring the situation'

American Airlines — which had just over 100 of its flights canceled and nearly 300 delayed as of 8:20 a.m. ET, according to the flight tracker FlightAware — said in a tweet just before 8 a.m. ET that it is "closely monitoring the situation and working with the FAA to minimize customer disruptions."

FAA says some departures resuming from Atlanta and Newark

Photo: the departures board at ronald reagan airport in washington.

Expert: Domestic flights won't be back to normal until Thursday or Friday

NBC aviation analyst Capt. John Cox said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that domestic flights won't return to their normal schedules until Thursday or Friday given the "domino effect" of the delays and cancellations caused by the nationwide computer outage.

"There's a domino effect to this — airplanes move around the world, and consequently, as an example, an airplane that's trapped in New York, in four hours, is expected to be in Los Angeles, in five hours. And so the people in Los Angeles that are depending on that airplane, their flight will be either delayed or canceled, and the airplane would then say, 'Go to Hawaii, and then come back,'" he said. "So you've got all of these airplanes moving around throughout the day."

"I think it'll certainly be tomorrow at the earliest, and potentially the day after, before the system's back to 100%," Cox added.

2,512 flights to or out of the U.S. delayed, flight-tracking site says

The tracking website FlightAware reported that 2,512 flights had been delayed leaving or entering the United States by 7:56 a.m. Wednesday.

Total cancellations stood at 254.

White House: No evidence of cyberattack right now but DOT doing 'full investigation'

All american airlines flights from paris delayed, airport operator says.

All American Airlines flights from Paris have been delayed until further notice, Groupe ADP, an international airport operator based in the French capital, told NBC News on Wednesday.

Air France, meanwhile, said its flights from the U.S. were going ahead as planned and were not affected by the FAA notice, and it understood that the problems with the system would be fixed soon.

United delays domestic flights until 9 a.m. ET

United Airlines said in a statement Wednesday it had temporarily delayed all domestic flights until at least 9 a.m. ET.

"The FAA system that sends out important real-time flight hazards and restrictions to all commercial airline pilots — Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) — is currently suffering a nationwide outage. United has temporarily delayed all domestic flights and will issue an update when we learn more from the FAA."

In a tweet, Southwest Airlines urged customers to check the status of their flights in the Southwest app or on its website.

FAA pauses all domestic departures until 9 a.m. ET

Flight radar shows aircraft over the united states at 7 a.m. et.

Sec. Buttigieg tweets he's been in touch with FAA

Hundreds of flights already affected.

Chantal Da Silva

About 760 flights within, into and out of the U.S. were delayed as of around 6:30 a.m. Wednesday morning, according to online flight tracker  FlightAware . Around 90 flights were listed as canceled.

“Operations across the National Airspace System are affected,” the FAA said in a statement.

“The FAA is working to restore its Notice to Air Missions System. We are performing final validation checks and repopulating the system now,” it said.

Click here to read the full article.

FAA still working to restore computer system

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