Tuesday’s disruption adds to a series of technology-related ground stops that have periodically sidelined U.S. carriers in recent years, including multi-hour outages at Alaska Airlines and United Airlines and a days-long crisis at Delta Air Lines in 2024.
The Federal Aviation Administration imposed a brief ground stop on all JetBlue flights early Tuesday at the airline’s request after a system outage disrupted operations. The FAA lifted the order approximately 40 minutes after it was issued, the agency said in a notice posted to its website.
“A brief system outage has been resolved and we have resumed operations,” JetBlue said in a statement. The airline did not provide further information about the nature or cause of the outage.
JetBlue, founded more than 25 years ago, is headquartered in New York City and operates its flagship terminal at the city’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.
A recurring problem for U.S. carriers
Tuesday’s rapid resolution contrasts with more severe technology-related disruptions that have hit U.S. airlines in recent years.
In October, Alaska Airlines had to ground its planes for hours because of an information technology outage. Three months before that, the same carrier grounded all of its flights for about three hours after a critical piece of hardware failed at a data center.
In August, a technology issue prompted United Airlines to ground planes at major U.S. airports; more than 1,000 flights were delayed over the course of several hours.
The most prolonged disruption in recent memory struck Delta Air Lines in 2024, when the carrier struggled for several days to recover from a worldwide technology outage caused by a faulty software update. That outage also struck hospitals and businesses around the world.