FAA Ground Stop – How Does This Affect UPS, FedEx, and USPS Express Shipments Today? – Update

The FAA has ordered all airlines to pause departures until at least 9 am this morning due to a failure with its Notice to Air Missions (NOTAMs) system.

This problem was identified earlier this morning, and since UPS and FedEx operate the majority of their air package flights overnight, we checked the flight status of many of their flights originating from their hubs.

According to the data we looked at, most outbound flights in Louisville (UPS) and Memphis (FedEx) had already departed.

We are not seeing any significant impact of this nationwide FAA ground stop on these two carriers at this moment.

Also, neither UPS nor FedEx has issued a service alert suggesting a nationwide disruption for their air express services due to the FAA systems problem with NOTAM.

However, because the parcel carriers use more than one air hub to transport express packages, some shipments could still be delayed today.

For example, shipments with origination and destination being on the West Coast could see delays. The most likely impact of these delays will be on Overnight or Next Day Air service with morning time commitments.

We suggest shippers monitor express packages today, including USPS Express packages, that are usually transported by FedEx.

Update: The ground stop has been lifted by the FAA and normal air operations are resuming gradually.

Richard Meldner

Richard is co-founder of eSeller365. He has over 17 years of experience on eBay which includes tens of thousands of sales to buyers in over 100 countries and even has experience with eBay’s VeRO program enforcing intellectual property rights for a former employer. And for about two years Richard sold products on Amazon using Amazon FBA in the US.

To “relax” from the daily business grind, for a few weekends a year, he also works for IMSA as a professional race official.