Canada’s aviation system was briefly hit by a computer outage just hours after problems with the same system forced the United States’ Federal Aviation Administration to ground air traffic across the country.
However, Canadian officials say they do not believe the cause of the outages is related.
“NAV CANADA’s Canadian NOTAM entry system experienced an outage affecting newly issued NOTAMs at approximately 10:20 a.m. ET and was restored at approximately 1:15 p.m. Mitigation measures were put in place to maintain ongoing operations,” said Vanessa Adams, spokeswoman of NAV Canada, in an emailed statement.
“We are still investigating the root cause of the breakdown. At this time, we do not believe the cause is related to the FAA outage that occurred earlier today.
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US flights are “gradually” resuming after the outage, and NAV Canada said on Twitter that the outage affecting Canadian systems did not cause any delays.
Less than two hours after announcing the outage, which NAV Canada said affected “newly issued NOTAMs,” the organization confirmed the system had been “restored.”
Following the outage in the US on Wednesday morning, Transport Minister Omar Algabra said he was “monitoring” the situation as it progressed.
“I am in contact with the United States government. Some flights departing from Canada to the US are affected, but operations are gradually resuming,” he tweeted on Wednesday.
Before starting a flight, pilots are required to consult NOTAMs, or Air Mission Notices, which list potential adverse impacts on flights, from runway construction to the potential for icing. The system was telephone-based, with pilots calling dedicated flight service stations for information, but has now moved online.
The outage contained the potential for widespread disruption. All aircraft must pass through the system, including commercial and military flights.
Speaking at a press conference Wednesday morning before the Canadian outage was announced, Algabra said the U.S. outage was “obviously a surprise.”
“It was an unplanned outage. We don’t know all the facts yet,” he said.
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“We will remain in coordination with our American partners to understand what happened and what we can do to avoid similar disruptions.”
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Almost 800 flights were scheduled to fly on Wednesday and it was not yet clear how many were or could be affected by the disruption, a spokesman for aviation analytics company Ciricum said.
“It’s no doubt a difficult situation for anyone looking to fly from Canada to the US or from the US to Canada — about 57,000 passengers based on historical data from Cirium,” Cirium’s Mike Arnott said in an interview Wednesday morning.
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Cirium provides the data that informs flight status displayed on airport boards, Arnaud explained.
“This is an extremely unusual event for the NOTAMs system to fail,” Arnaud said.
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“It’s a system that informs air traffic controllers and pilots about flight elements they need to know about.” This could include having a VIP presidential no-fly zone, or even something as small as a tower at a particular airport not working.
These warnings are distributed to commercial airline pilots via a messaging system.
“At the end of the day, this is a key part of the airline and aviation safety,” Arnault explained on Wednesday.
“That’s why the FAA took action to suspend all flights for a period of time today.”
Moments after Arnaud spoke with Global News on Wednesday morning, the FAA tweeted that normal air traffic operations were “gradually resuming in the US” following the overnight outage of the Air Mission Notification System.
“The ground stop has been removed,” the tweet read.
“We are still looking into the cause of the original problem.”
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Air Canada, which operates the majority of flights between Canada and the U.S., said the outage would affect its “cross-border operations” on Wednesday.
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“But at this stage it is not possible to determine the extent as we do not know the full impact and duration,” an Air Canada spokesperson said in a statement sent to Global News.
“Customers should check their flights before going to the airport. We are implementing a goodwill policy for affected customers to change their travel plans.
Six WestJet flights also faced delays as a result of the outage, a spokesman said, but no flights had been canceled as of 12:00 p.m. ET.
Montreal’s Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport issued a warning to travelers flying to the United States on Wednesday.
“Due to a computer system failure at the Federal Aviation Administration, your flight to the United States may be affected,” it said.
“Please check your flight status with your airline before traveling to YUL.”
Other Canadian airports, including Toronto Pearson and Vancouver International Airport, issued similar guidance on Twitter.
“Given the FAA system outage, we advise all passengers bound for the US to check their flight status before heading to the airport,” the Toronto Pearson account said.
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The impact at Macdonald-Cartier International Airport in Ottawa was “minimal,” according to a spokesperson. Two flights from Newark were affected.
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The FAA ordered all US flights to delay departures until 9:00 a.m. ET, although airlines said they were aware of the situation and had already begun grounding flights.
As of 7:30 a.m. ET, there were more than 1,200 delayed flights in, to, or out of the United States, according to flight-tracking website FlightAware. More than 100 were cancelled.
Most of the delays were concentrated along the East Coast, but began to spread westward. Inbound international flights to Miami International Airport continued to land, but all departures were delayed as of 6:30 a.m., airport spokesman Greg Chinn said.
European flights to the US appeared largely unaffected on Wednesday morning.
Irish carrier Aer Lingus said services to the US were continuing and Dublin Airport’s website showed its flights to Newark, Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles operating as scheduled.
“Aer Lingus plans to operate all transatlantic flights as scheduled today,” the carrier said in a prepared statement. “We will continue to monitor, but do not expect any disruption to our services resulting from the technical issue in the United States.”
The FAA said it will provide frequent updates as it progresses.
— With files from The Associated Press
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