Travelers at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and Love Field found themselves in a state of confusion and frustration on Friday, September 19, 2025, as a major telecommunications outage brought air traffic to a standstill across North Texas. The incident, triggered by a breakdown in the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) critical communications infrastructure, led to a cascade of flight cancellations, delays, and widespread disruption for passengers and airlines alike.
According to CNN, the trouble began early Friday afternoon when FAA air traffic controllers in Dallas lost both radar and essential communications, forcing officials to halt all departures and arrivals at the city’s two main airports. The disruption was traced to “two cut fiber optic cables,” which crippled the data flow needed for radar and other vital systems. The FAA later attributed the outage to “multiple failures” in a data communication service provided by a local telecommunications company, compounded by a contractor’s failure to ensure system redundancies were functioning as intended.
“This is a clear example of the FAA’s outdated infrastructure and underscores the urgent need to modernize our air traffic control systems,” the agency said in a statement on Saturday. The outage, which began around 1:30 p.m. Central Time, effectively paralyzed air traffic management at key facilities, including the Dallas Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON), and even impacted smaller airports such as Meacham International and McKinney National Airport, as reported by local news outlets.
As the hours ticked by, the scale of the disruption became painfully clear. By Friday evening, over 430 flights had been canceled and 580 delayed at Dallas-Fort Worth, with Love Field reporting over 190 delays, according to FlightAware data cited by CNN and The Independent. American Airlines, whose largest hub is at DFW, bore the brunt of the chaos, canceling more than 530 flights on Friday and another 160 on Saturday. The ripple effects, the airline warned, would likely continue into the weekend, with more than 100,000 customers affected by the disruption.
Southwest Airlines, which operates a hub at Love Field, was less severely impacted but still faced significant operational challenges. The airline reported only one cancellation on Friday and resumed normal operations by Saturday, according to statements provided to CNN and The Independent. Both airlines offered rebooking options and, in some cases, meal or lodging vouchers to stranded passengers.
The outage sparked confusion and anxiety among travelers. Krysta Wagner, a passenger at DFW, told CNN, “We just kept getting delayed, delayed. They let us know that there was an air traffic control issue and there was just too much delay, so we’re going to miss our layover.” Kevin Hensley, another traveler, gave up on making it home to Boston that night after waiting in line for more than half an hour. “There’s actually about it looks like about another half hour to wait. I have a flight tomorrow morning. I’m just going to take that,” he said. Marion Anson-Perchal, traveling from Wichita Falls to Florida, worried aloud, “Hopefully they can rebook us and get us to Miami before 12 tomorrow, or we are going to miss our cruise.”
Air traffic controllers themselves described the situation as unprecedented. In audio captured by LiveATC.net, a controller at Love Field said, “We’ve lost all radar and phone communications. I’m not departing anybody until we can get a system setup. We have no coms with approach right now.” A Southwest pilot relayed to the tower, “Approach wanted to pass on to you to stop all departures. They can’t get a hold of you. They are having some com issues, I guess.” The controller’s reply was stark: “Yeah, I think the entire Metroplex just went down. We got a hold of somebody.” Over at DFW, another controller told pilots, “I am currently stopped on all departures. This (also) happened a couple of days ago where somebody cut a line and we lost everything, so bear with me… I have no idea how long we are going to be stopped.”
The FAA’s initial investigation pointed to the failure of the TDM data telecommunications service, provided by Frontier, as the root cause. The agency clarified that the problem did not stem from FAA equipment itself but from external telecommunications infrastructure. “The FAA is working with the telephone company to determine the cause,” the agency told The Independent. The situation was exacerbated by the fact that system redundancies—meant to provide a safety net in exactly these scenarios—did not function as intended, leaving air traffic controllers without their usual backup systems.
The event was not entirely without precedent. Earlier in 2025, similar failures in telecommunications lines between Long Island and Philadelphia repeatedly caused communication blackouts for flights approaching or departing Newark Liberty International Airport. On one occasion, radios were silenced for 30 seconds and radar screens went dark for 90 seconds, leading to thousands of delayed flights and five FAA employees taking trauma leave. As CNN reported, the situation was only resolved after a new fiber optic cable was installed, but not before three more outages occurred.
The recurring nature of these incidents has amplified calls for a comprehensive overhaul of the nation’s air traffic control systems. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is leading the charge, urging Congress to support a multi-billion-dollar modernization plan. “It’s a substantial piece of work and will take a substantial amount of money,” Duffy told reporters earlier this year. The FAA has echoed these sentiments, highlighting that the Dallas incident “underscores the urgent need to modernize our air traffic control systems.”
American Airlines, in a memo shared with CNN, criticized the FAA’s efforts to speed up departures on Friday night as “too little, too late,” and expressed disappointment with the telecommunications companies involved. David Seymour, American’s Chief Operating Officer, said the airline had spoken with the telecom providers and was “disappointed” by their lack of urgency. Meanwhile, Southwest Airlines relaxed its rebooking and refund policies for affected passengers, promising to “do our best to minimize further delays,” according to spokesman Lynn Lunsford.
DFW, the third-busiest airport in the world, and Love Field are both vital hubs for the region and the nation’s air travel network. The September 19 outage, while resolved by Saturday, has left a lasting impression on travelers, airlines, and policymakers. As the aviation industry continues to grow and evolve, the need for resilient, modern digital infrastructure has never been clearer. The events in North Texas serve as a sobering reminder: the reliability of air travel depends not just on planes and pilots, but on the invisible web of technology that keeps the skies safe and open.
