FAA lifts nationwide ground stop, 4 hours after air traffic chaos began — but thousands of NYC travelers left stranded

Thousands of fed-up travelers were stranded across Big Apple airports after an extremely rare nationwide ground stop delayed and canceled countless flights for hours Friday — before being lifted shortly before 8:30 p.m.

The Federal Aviation Administration announced the unprecedented move just before 4 p.m. to ground all flights – prompting a wave of cancellations at some of the nation’s busiest travel hubs, including New York’s LaGuardia and JFK airports. 

Hannah, a member of the US Navy, had been traveling for 30 hours and was on her last leg home to Florida from deployment when her flight out of LaGuardia was canceled.

“We were coming from abroad, it’s been multiple days to get here,” a weary Hannah told The Post.  “This was the last step to get home, and it just didn’t work out for us.”

Some 26,000 flights were delayed and another 5,000 canceled before Transportation Secreatry Sean Duffy announced at an 8:15 p.m. press briefing that the ground stop had been lifted.

“It just really pisses me off,” Eric Ji, 22, said from JFK. “I haven’t taken a flight in two years and the one time I take a flight, the entire US gets grounded.”

An announcement at LaGuardia Airport told travelers to expect a two- to three-hour wait time to collect luggage checked in on canceled flights. A worker there said the delays were so lengthy because of the massive number of bags to sort through. 

“I am irritated and I am tired and I am all of the things,” said hairstylist Sarai Martinez, 42, who was meant to fly home to Boston at 6 p.m.

“I’m on the verge of leaving my bag here,” a fed-up Martinez groused. “I’m going to get in the cab and f–k my bag.”

Even after the ground stop was lifted, many travelers were still in limbo waiting at Big Apple air hubs and were frustrated with the airport’s response to the rare nationwide event. 

“I feel exhausted,” upstate New Yorker Alfred Khan said while sitting on the floor of Kennedy airport with his bags. “I feel abandoned by the airline.”

Follow the latest on the FAA’s nationwide ground stop:

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• FAA launched new AI ‘SMART’ tool to all air route traffic control centers just days before nationwide ground stop
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“They could have given us some vouchers for food for 10 bucks. There must be children and pregnant women. It would have been a nice gesture,” Khan, 55, said of American Airlines.

Khan added that “the problem is not the delay,” but instead “it’s the lack of compassion by the airline.”

“Not even a bottle of water and terrible communication,” he fumed, unsure if or when he would make it to Miami for his business trip.

“My rental car is messed up. My hotel is messed up.” 

Another traveler stressed he “can’t trust the airline” because of the chaos that ensued during the ground stop.

Carlos Abarca, 54, was meant to fly to Washington, DC, at 5 p.m. and spent hours looking for a rental car, bus ticket or train ticket to make it to the nation’s capital.

“Unfortunately, those options aren’t available, they’re sold out. I’m trying to figure out what my next move is gonna be,” Abarca said.

“Right now, I can’t trust the airline because after what happened today, that’s gonna affect tomorrow,” he stressed. “Even as an experienced business traveler, I’m stranded in the city that doesn’t sleep.”

Although commercial flights are expected to resume late Friday night, Duffy cautioned that it will take “some time” for travel to get fully back to normal.

The transporation head blamed the country’s “incredibly old air traffic control system” for the communication issues that prompted the stoppage but said officials are “working overtime” to figure out exactly what happened — and how to prevent it from occurring again.