Overview
- The FAA issued a ground delay for San Francisco International Airport on Thursday that kept many inbound flights at their origin airports until 12:59 a.m. Friday to prevent airborne congestion.
- The agency said SFO arrivals were cut to about 25 planes per hour, with flights bound for the airport experiencing an average delay of roughly 164 minutes and a maximum assigned delay of 598 minutes.
- By Thursday afternoon FlightAware reported about 413 delayed flights and 47 cancellations, with United showing the largest share of delays and SkyWest reporting the most cancellations.
- SFO was already operating with reduced landing capacity because a runway repaving project and new federal safety limits lowered its theoretical maximum arrivals from 54 to 36 per hour, which worsened the wind-driven impact.
- The National Weather Service warned of continued volatile conditions, including high winds and up to 4 inches of high-elevation Sierra snow, which could extend schedule ripple effects and stubborn airport disruption.