FAA Orders Ground Stops at Philadelphia and Teterboro Due to Thunderstorms; 10 Ground Delay Programs in Effect
Why It MattersThunderstorm stops at Teterboro, a key business-jet gateway, alongside rising departure delays at Newark and LaGuardia, show how one weather cell can compress capacity across the New York corridor.
The FAA's National Airspace System status feed, timed Oct. 16 at 21:08:59 GMT, showed two ground stops, both attributed to thunderstorms. Philadelphia (PHL) and Teterboro (TEB) were each expected to see their ground stops end at 6:00 p.m. EDT.
Ten ground delay programs were active. Newark (EWR) was listed for an unspecified reason, with an average delay of 1 hour 12 minutes and a longest delay of 2 hours 17 minutes. Washington Reagan (DCA) was affected by low ceilings, averaging 44 minutes with a longest delay of 1 hour 34 minutes. Austin (AUS) had runway construction, averaging 1 hour 6 minutes with a longest delay of 2 hours 12 minutes. Philadelphia (PHL) was affected by thunderstorms, averaging 57 minutes with a longest delay of 4 hours 5 minutes. Montreal (YUL) had runway maintenance, averaging 1 hour 4 minutes.
Three general departure delays were also listed, all under the traffic management initiative code SWAP:WX and all with an increasing trend: Newark (EWR), 16 to 30 minutes; New York LaGuardia (LGA), 31 to 45 minutes; and Teterboro (TEB), 16 to 30 minutes. Three closure notices (NOTAMs) were in effect, mostly scheduled or partial closures such as overnight hours, a single runway, or light aircraft only.
A ground stop holds flights bound for an airport at their departure airports, usually for under an hour or two, while a ground delay program spreads arrivals over several hours. The average and longest delays are FAA estimates, and these are airport-wide programs, so an individual flight may still operate on time or be cancelled.
