RALEIGH, N.C. — Travelers at Raleigh-Durham International Airport near Raleigh, N.C., were still sorting out delays Tuesday after two ground stops at the airport on Monday disrupted departures and arrivals through the evening.
The first stop came late Monday morning, when flights were grounded for about 20 minutes because a fiber-optic line in the area was cut during a nearby plumbing repair. Around 11:15 a.m., several planes could be seen lined up on a runway waiting to depart.
A second ground stop lasted from 6:45 p.m. to 8 p.m., which Federal Aviation Administration officials attributed to an equipment outage. It was the second outage of the day tied to equipment problems at the airport. As of Monday evening, around 261 flights were delayed at the airport.
An airport spokesperson said repairs were ongoing and directed questions about the impact on air traffic systems to the FAA. The airport did not say Monday night whether the cut line was still affecting operations.
The disruption carries weight well beyond one terminal. Raleigh-Durham International Airport is the region’s only major commercial airport, and area businesses rely on it for air cargo and business travel. The airport, listed under the code RDU and the identifier KRDU, is owned and managed by the Raleigh-Durham Airport Authority.
Travelers with flights through RDU on Tuesday should check their airline’s app or the airport’s flight status page before heading out, since crews and aircraft knocked off schedule Monday can ripple into the next day.
