Flight Disruptions Now

July 22, 2026

FAA cancels New York and Philadelphia GDPs as ground stops extend to 9 PM

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All seven active Northeast ground stops were extended for a third time this afternoon, DCA, IAD, BWI, and Boston to 8:30 PM ET and JFK, LaGuardia, Newark, and Teterboro to 9 PM, the FAA cancelled the ground delay programs for the New York metros and Philadelphia because ground stops and schedule reduction are carrying the evening, United Airlines implemented its own carrier stop at Newark to manage its stranded fleet, Dulles has accumulated 15,784 held flights at a three-hour-fifty-six-minute average, Boston 11,953 at four hours thirty-two minutes, and Tropical Storm Bertha's 8 PM ET advisory shows conditions now occurring along the northern Gulf Coast with a Pensacola Beach gust at 43 mph.

The GDP cancellations are the story

The FAA's operations plan advisory, ADVZY 265, signed at 7:43 PM ET, lays out the reversal plainly: "Ground Delay Programs were cancelled for the NY Mets and PHL TRACON airports" and "several ground delay programs for the Northeast airports have been cancelled due to continuing ground stop and schedule reduction for the remainder of the evening." In plain terms, the FAA gave up on the arrival-metering programs that were supposed to run to midnight at LaGuardia, Newark, JFK, and Philadelphia. The ground stops themselves are doing the work, and the airlines have already cut enough evening departures that the GDPs became redundant.

The EWR GDP cancellation (ADVZY 260, signed 7:02 PM ET) is the clearest signal. It instructs controllers to "disregard EDCTS for dest EWR" effective 7:00 PM through the rest of the program window. The LGA, JFK, and PHL GDPs were cancelled in the same batch.

Two GDPs survive. Boston's GDP runs to 10:59 PM ET (0259Z), and San Francisco's continues to 1:59 AM ET (0559Z) on its standing low-ceiling program. The ops plan says BOS ground stop extensions are "anticipated" through 10 PM (0200Z), meaning Boston is the one airport where the FAA still expects to need both tools.

What this means for travelers: the GDP cancellation does NOT mean delays are easing. A ground stop is more severe than a GDP. A GDP spaces out arrivals with assigned delay times, letting some flights depart late. A ground stop holds everything at the origin airport until the stop lifts. The FAA cancelled the gentler program because the harder one is still running, and the evening schedule has already been thinned enough that metering arrivals is no longer the bottleneck.

The numbers at the third extension

This is the third time today the ground stops have been pushed back. The first extension came at 2:10 PM ET (to 3 PM), the second at 5:13 PM (to 6:30 and 7:30 PM), and now the third lands the DC metros and Boston at 8:30 PM and the New York metros at 9 PM.

The cumulative flight counts from the latest advisories are staggering:

Cumulative flights held in Northeast ground stops, July 21
Cumulative flights captured by FAA CDM ground stop advisories as of ~6:15 PM ET. IAD, BOS, DCA, BWI, PHL, and EWR are cumulative across the afternoon; JFK and TEB are current-period counts for the latest reissuance. Source: FAA ATCSCC advisories ADVZY 235-263, 07/21/2026

Live FAA data at 8:14 PM ET confirms 13 airports with active delays or ground stops. The departure delay ranges at delivery: LGA 2h16m to 2h30m, EWR 2h01m to 2h15m, JFK 1h15m to 1h29m, IAD 1h31m to 1h45m, DCA 46 minutes to 1 hour, BOS 15 to 29 minutes.

United runs its own stop at Newark

The most operationally significant detail in the ops plan is a single sentence: "UAL has implemented a carrier stop for EWR to manage their fleet." This is not an FAA ground stop. It is United Airlines telling its own dispatchers to hold United and subsidiary flights on the ground, separate from the FAA's airspace-level stop.

The advisory trail tells the story. The general EWR ground stop, which had been running all afternoon, converted to a UAL-only carrier stop at approximately 6:50 PM ET (ADVZY 261, "FLT INCL: CARRIER UAL ONLY", cumulative 2,615 flights at 187-minute average). A follow-up advisory (ADVZY 262) noted "ZOB, ZBW, ZNY released. UAL and subs only" with just 14 flights in the current period. Then at 7:30 PM, a new general EWR ground stop (ADVZY 263) was issued from ZDC to 9 PM, reason "NO ROUTE/WEATHER/THUNDERSTORMS."

So Newark is under two simultaneous holds: the FAA's ZDC-originated ground stop because there are no available arrival routes into the New York metro airspace, and United's own carrier stop because the airline needs to manage aircraft and crews that have been out of position for hours. The EWR GDP that was supposed to meter arrivals to midnight was cancelled at 7:02 PM.

The ops plan adds that "route structure has been published to stage aircraft on the west side of the weather as the west gates become useable," suggesting the FAA is trying to open west-side arrival routes as the storm complex moves through. ZJX (Jacksonville Center) anticipates cancelling the MCO ground stop (ADVZY 264 CNX, signed 7:37 PM) as F11 TRACON accepts one arrival route.

Orlando's ground stop had held 712 flights at a 51-minute average before it was cancelled.

The en route picture and what runs through midnight

The ops plan lists 18 centers with thunderstorm constraints (ZBW through ZLA) and several closed route structures. ZNY's Y493/Y494/L452/L453/L454/L455 are closed with an update by 11 PM ET. ZDC's AR8/AR9 routes are closed with the same update time. Gulf routes through ZHU (Q100/Q102/Y280/Y290/A770/L214/L333/M580/A766) are closed with an update by midnight ET.

Active en route flow restrictions run through 9 to 11 PM ET: NE_TO_FLORIDA_VIA_Q480_1 until 9 PM, PHLYER_NORTH/SOUTH/WEST until 10 PM, FCA021 (ATL) and FCA022 (CLT) until 10 PM, SOUTH_TO_ORD until 10 PM, FLORIDA_TO_NE_3_MODIFIED until 11 PM, and JOT_1_PARTIAL until 11 PM.

SWAP statements (Severe Weather Avoidance Plan) continue for ZDC and ZNY through 11:59 PM ET, with the DC Metro Hotline running to 10 PM and the NY Metro Hotline to midnight.

Staffing triggers: ZTL Area 4 until 10 PM, ZDC Area 1 until 11 PM, ZNY TMU until midnight, F11 TRACON until midnight. These are air traffic control staffing constraints layered on top of the weather, reducing the number of routes and sectors available even as the storms move through.

Tropical Storm Bertha tracking

NHC Intermediate Advisory 10A (8 PM ET / 700 PM CDT): 60 mph, 997 mb, moving west at 6 mph. Center near 29.3N 87.4W, about 120 miles west-southwest of Panama City and 105 miles south-southeast of Mobile. The headline change from the 5 PM advisory is that tropical storm conditions are now "occurring along portions of the northern Gulf Coast," not just spreading toward it. A gust to 43 mph was reported at Pensacola Beach.

No changes to watches or warnings. Tropical Storm Warning: Bay/Gulf County Line in Florida to Morgan City, Louisiana, plus Metropolitan New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain. Tropical Storm Watch: west of Morgan City to Cameron, Louisiana, plus Lake Maurepas. Rain 2 to 4 inches, isolated 6, through Thursday. Little change in strength tonight, gradual weakening Wednesday through Friday. Track near or along the northern Gulf Coast the next couple of days, approaching southern Louisiana Wednesday.

No Gulf Coast airport ground stops are in effect. No airline has issued a Bertha-specific travel waiver. The next complete NHC advisory is at 11 PM ET.

Rebooking waivers

All four major Northeast carriers have active weather waivers, unchanged from this morning. If your flight is affected, rebook immediately, as alternative seats fill within hours of a waiver going live.

No carrier has issued a waiver for Gulf Coast airports tied to Tropical Storm Bertha as of 8 PM ET. Based on the June Arthur playbook, American, Delta, Southwest, and United typically post penalty-free rebooking waivers 24 to 48 hours before conditions arrive at a given airport. Expect coverage for Pensacola, Panama City, Mobile, Gulfport, and New Orleans as Bertha approaches southern Louisiana Wednesday.

That’s the reading for this issue.