Federal aviation officials temporarily halted flights from Dallas and Houston arriving into Austin-Bergstrom International Airport on Friday morning.
The Federal Aviation Administration lifted its ground stop just before noon. The FAA cited staffing issues at ABIA for the temporary pause on arrivals.
ABIA advised travelers from Dallas and Houston to keep an eye out for potential delays. It also advised travelers with flights from Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, which is within Houston's airspace, to "stay in touch with their airline."
"Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS) has heard from the FAA that the ground stop has been lifted, but we expect it to take a couple of hours or so for flight schedules into AUS from airports in the affected air space to get back on schedule," a spokesperson said.
ABIA said flights arriving from Dallas and Houston airspace were affected late Friday morning. That included flights from George Bush Intercontinental Airport, William P. Hobby Airport, Dallas Love Field and DFW International Airport. Departing flights were not affected, the airport said.
ABIA has struggled with staffing in recent years. Multiple flights nearly collided at ABIA in 2023, prompting a push to staff up the airport's air traffic controllers – some of whom were working six-day weeks to make up for staffing shortages.
Ground stops, which were once rare at ABIA, have been issued at least three times in roughly two years. The most recent one in December cited staffing as the reasoning to halt flights at ABIA.
Austin City Council Member Vanessa Fuentes said the incident underscores the need for more air traffic controllers at ABIA. Fuentes, whose district includes ABIA, said the gap in staffing at the airport is a "crisis" and called on federal aviation officials to act on repeated calls to hire more employees.
"They know we have a national shortage on staffing, and they can do something about it, and they have not prioritized it," she said. "They are certainly not acting with the urgency that we need."
