In addition, air traffic control delays are common at some of the country’s busiest airports where air traffic volume is continuously high. For example, Chicago-O’hare is arguably the busiest airport in the world measured by operations (takeoffs and landings). It frequently encounters periods of time where more airplanes are inbound to land from across the country than the airport can handle due to the number of runways and amount of airspace available. During these times, the FAA issues a ground stop for all airplanes inbound to O’hare which requires the airplanes to hold on the ground at their origin until a time exists where they can be fit into the traffic sequence. These delays run from a half hour or so all the way up to eight or more hours depending on the severity of the resource limitation.

The final reason for air traffic control delays is weather. When large thunderstorms build across the nation, air traffic must be routed around them both for passenger comfort and safety. Most large thunderstorms build to anywhere from 40,000 to 55,000 feet tall. The average commercial airliner can cruise no higher than 38-40,000 feet which limits the ability to fly over the top of the storm. These storms then create narrower corridors in which to flow the same number of aircraft across the country which means higher workloads for the controllers in those corridors. Ground holds or holding in the air may be issued so that enough space exists between airliners in the sky.

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