Tech Meltdown At Detroit: Delta Ground Stop Freezes Flights At McNamara Terminal
Delta Air Lines had a chaotic start to Friday after a major network outage crippled operations at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW). The disruption hit the McNamara Terminal, Delta’s primary home in Detroit and one of its key hubs in the United States.
Because Delta is the dominant carrier in McNamara, the issue triggered a ground stop that applied only to Delta and its regional partners. Other airlines using DTW were able to operate normally. Even so, the scale of Delta’s presence in Detroit — where it holds a 53.7% market share — meant the outage quickly cascaded into severe delays for thousands of passengers.
Update: Delta Restores Its Systems
Friday, December 5th, 12:30pm EST
Delta reported that flights were resuming around 9:40am EST after the connectivity issue was resolved. The airline also issued waivers for affected travelers and apologized for the disruption.
Delta’s Detroit Ground Stop
The trouble began early Friday morning when a network failure hit systems at McNamara Terminal. Local outlets reported the first signs of trouble around 5:00am, with check-in systems impacted and long lines forming as passengers were unable to obtain boarding passes or drop bags.
As the situation worsened, Delta issued a ground stop covering all of its flights into and out of DTW. At one point, no Delta aircraft were allowed to depart from or arrive at the airport. Fox 2 Detroit reported that all Delta movements were effectively frozen while teams worked to diagnose and fix the problem.
Detroit Airport released a brief statement confirming the technology issues and the resulting halt to Delta operations:
“Delta Air Lines is experiencing a network outage affecting operations at the McNamara Terminal. Delta has initiated a ground stop for its flights while the airline works to resolve the issue.”
Maintenance Work And Ripple Effects
Given how central Detroit is to Delta’s network, even a short ground stop has outsized consequences. Aircraft and crews quickly ended up in the wrong places, raising the risk of knock-on disruptions later in the day and into the weekend as schedules were rebuilt.
IT maintenance teams began working on the issue shortly after the outage was identified, but the exact root cause has not been disclosed. The initial ground stop was expected to last a few hours, with the FAA noting a possibility that it could be extended depending on how quickly systems came back online.
Early data from FlightAware showed at least 15 Delta departures from DTW canceled and around 40 delayed, along with 17 arriving flights canceled and another 25 delayed. Those numbers were expected to rise as the morning peak pushed into the afternoon and aircraft rotations were reset.
Scheduling data indicated that roughly 330 Delta flights were due to depart Detroit on Friday. Atlanta was the top destination with 10 planned flights, followed by Grand Rapids and Indianapolis with seven each — meaning that delays in Detroit could quickly spread across Delta’s domestic network.
Detroit Isn’t Alone: Edinburgh Hit By Separate IT Outage
Detroit was not the only airport dealing with technology trouble on Friday. Edinburgh Airport (EDI) in Scotland suffered its own IT outage affecting air traffic control systems. Around 8:30am local time, arrivals and departures were suspended altogether, forcing a temporary halt to operations.
Flights resumed roughly two hours later, at about 10:40am, but not before a significant portion of the day’s schedule had been disrupted. FlightAware data suggested that while outright cancellations were limited, around one-third of departures from Edinburgh were delayed.
The outage impacted flights to major European hubs including Amsterdam Schiphol, Bristol, Frankfurt, and London Gatwick. Unlike Detroit, where the issue was confined to one airline and one terminal, Edinburgh’s problem affected airport-wide air traffic control systems, necessitating a complete stop to all movements until the issue was resolved.
