Departures from every California airport were frozen on Friday afternoon, Nov. 13, after the Federal Aviation Administration ordered a nationwide ground stop at 12:54 p.m. Pacific, citing communication problems at the centers that handle high-altitude traffic. For the California airports ground stop, the hit landed on top of an already bad day: SFO was running a wind delay program and San Diego a volume program before the national order arrived. Arriving flights were still landing.
Where it stands: At 2 p.m. Pacific Friday, Nov. 13 (5 p.m. on the East Coast), nobody at the FAA or the Transportation Department, Secretary Sean Duffy included, had announced an end to the order. The FAA’s airport feed, pulled at about 1:50 p.m. Pacific, still showed departures elsewhere in the country coded to the national stop.
How the California airports ground stop is playing out
The order itself, as quoted by Clash Report, is blunt: “Due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety. Attention all aircraft operators, by order of the Federal Aviation Command Center all airports are ground stopped. All departing traffic should remain ground stopped until further notice. Inbound international flights will be managed on a case by case basis.” That covers every airport in the state, large and small. The table shows what each major California airport looked like by early afternoon.
| Airport | What was reported or listed | Source |
|---|---|---|
| SFO | Departures held; arrivals landing; wind delay program | SFO via Chronicle, KTVU; FAA feed |
| LAX | No planes departing | ABC7 Los Angeles |
| San Diego (SAN) | Volume delay program; departure delays | FAA feed |
| San Jose (SJC) | Covered by the order; no airport statement found | Advisory 111 |
| Ontario (ONT) | Named as likely affected | Reuters via Valley News |
SFO: held departures on a windy, stormy day
San Francisco International was already struggling before the national order. The San Francisco Standard reported that “SFO passengers had already experienced delays Friday due to stormy weather,” and that the FAA had put a traffic management program in place for SFO-bound flights citing wind. “As of 1:17 p.m. PT, some arriving flights were delayed an average of 2 hours and 18 minutes,” the Standard reported, and the agency warned SFO departures could feel it too because arrivals were being held.
The FAA airport feed carries the same program in raw form: a ground delay program for SFO with the condition listed as wind, an average delay of 138 minutes, a maximum of 690 minutes, and an end time of 07:59 UTC Saturday, which is 11:59 p.m. Pacific Friday. That program is separate from the national stop and was set before it.
Once the national order took effect, the airport described a split picture. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, aircraft already flying toward SFO kept landing but departures were not taking off, citing airport spokesman Doug Yakel. An SFO spokesperson told KTVU: “(The) FAA confirms a nationwide ground stop, although we don’t know the nature of the outage. Aircraft already en route to SFO (are) landing here.”
LAX and Southern California
ABC7 Los Angeles reported that “LAX and other local airports are impacted and were not letting any planes depart.” A Valley News roundup citing Reuters said the stop could reach travelers using San Diego, Ontario, Los Angeles “and other regional airports,” while adding that “the extent of disruptions at individual Southern California airports had not been independently confirmed.”
One point of confusion is worth clearing up. KTVU’s early-afternoon report said the FAA status page showed ground stops in Southern California and Las Vegas, among other places. In the FAA feed we read about half an hour later, LAX appears in a closure list, but the entry is a notice that has been in place since May and closes LAX only to non-scheduled transient general aviation aircraft without prior permission. It is not an airline closure. John Wayne Airport (SNA) also appears in that list under a daily window from 07:30 to 14:15 UTC, a notice running Nov. 10 to Nov. 21; those UTC hours fall overnight in California, so it is not the ground stop either.
San Diego: a volume program before the stop
San Diego International also had an FAA program running before the national order. The feed listed a ground delay program for SAN with the condition “airport volume,” an average delay of 34 minutes and a maximum of 81, running until 05:59 UTC Saturday, or 9:59 p.m. Pacific Friday. Separate departure delays at SAN were coded to volume as well. The national stop now sits on top of both.
San Jose, Oakland and the rest of the state
We found no airport-specific statement from San Jose Mineta International, Oakland, Sacramento, Burbank or Long Beach by 2 p.m. Pacific, and the FAA feed carried no separate entry for them. Because Advisory 111 says all airports are ground stopped, departures from those airports are held the same as at SFO and LAX. Passengers at those airports should look to their airline’s app for the status of a specific flight.
The FAA has not said which of its 22 en-route centers lost communications. Officially, the descriptions differ: the FAA cited “communication issues impacting multiple Air Route Traffic Control Centers,” while Duffy said the problem was “impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers.” The feed files the SFO program under the Oakland center code ZOA and San Diego’s under the Los Angeles center code ZLA; whether either California center was among those that failed has not been stated.
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Evening departures and red-eyes
For Californians, the time zone matters. The advisory’s window, according to USA Today, closes at 11:30 p.m. Eastern, or 8:30 p.m. here. It also cautioned: “The listed expiration time does not guarantee that flights will resume by then.” Flights scheduled to leave California after that hour, including overnight departures to the East Coast, fall after the window closes, but whether any given flight operates depends on when the FAA actually releases traffic and on where the airline’s planes and crews are.
That second point is where the risk sits. The New York Times, as quoted by Patch, warned: “If it lasts long, those delays could turn into cancellations as flight crews reach legal working limits. That would have cascading effects throughout the weekend.” That is a forecast from a news outlet, not an FAA estimate; the FAA has not given one. SFO’s wind program, listed through 11:59 p.m. Pacific, adds another constraint for Bay Area evening flights.
Travelers who rebook onto a different day or switch to another airport still clear TSA screening, so check that your ID meets the rules in our guide to the California REAL ID documents you must bring.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are flights leaving SFO right now?
Not at 2 p.m. Pacific on Friday, Nov. 13. SFO said departing flights were not taking off under the national ground stop, while planes already headed to SFO kept landing. Federal officials still had not cleared Bay Area planes to leave.
Is LAX closed?
Not under a closure notice. ABC7 Los Angeles reported that LAX departures were being held by the national ground stop. The closure entry for LAX in the FAA feed is a long-standing notice that applies only to non-scheduled transient general aviation aircraft without prior permission.
Does the ground stop apply to San Jose, Oakland and other smaller California airports?
The FAA advisory says all airports are ground stopped, so departures from every California airport are covered. We found no airport-specific statement from San Jose or Oakland as of 2 p.m. Pacific.
When will California flights resume?
The FAA has not said. Its advisory carries a planning time of 11:30 p.m. Eastern, or 8:30 p.m. Pacific, but departures stay held until further notice and that time is not a guarantee.
Why were SFO flights delayed before the ground stop?
The FAA had already put a ground delay program in place for SFO because of wind, during a day of stormy weather. Arriving flights were averaging about two hours and 18 minutes of delay in early afternoon.
Sources
- NAS Status: airport events feed — Federal Aviation Administration, read about 1:50 p.m. PT, November 13, 2026
- FAA grounds flights nationwide, including SFO, citing ‘extraordinary circumstances’ — San Francisco Chronicle, November 13, 2026
- Nationwide ground stop halts U.S. flights — The San Francisco Standard, November 13, 2026
- FAA grounds planes across US airports amid ‘communication issues’ — KTVU FOX 2, November 13, 2026
- FAA issues nationwide ground stop due to communication issue; LAX, other local airports impacted — ABC7 Los Angeles, November 13, 2026
- FAA orders nationwide ground stop, halting flight departures across United States — Valley News, November 13, 2026
- FAA Grounds CA Flights Under Nationwide ‘Extraordinary Circumstances’ Order — Patch (Los Angeles), November 13, 2026
- Ground stop live updates: FAA orders flights to remain grounded nationwide — USA Today (via Yahoo News), November 13, 2026
- FAA Nationwide Ground Stop Blamed on Air Traffic Control Comms Issue — Clash Report, November 13, 2026
This article is news reporting and analysis based on the public sources listed above, as they stood on the dates shown. Where officials, lawmakers or analysts disagree, including on whether an action is lawful, their positions are attributed to them; California News Now is not a court and nothing here is legal advice. Facts in a developing story can change.