ATIS Alerts Publishes a Free 12-Month History of FAA Ground Stops: LaGuardia Led the Nation, and the Sunday After Thanksgiving Was Last Year's Worst Holiday Day
Built from the FAA Command Center's own advisories and updated daily, the ground stop ranking shows which US airports stop the most, for how long and why, with a Thanksgiving-week breakdown and a free CSV.
LONGWOOD, Fla., November 10, 2026 — ATIS Alerts (atisalerts.com), a free aviation weather site, today published a 12-month history of every FAA ground stop and ground delay program at US airports. The ranking is built from the FAA Command Center's own advisories and updated every day.
Over the last 12 months the FAA issued 2,222 ground stops at 97 US airports. New York's LaGuardia had the most, 178, adding up to about 369 hours with inbound flights held at their departure airports. Chicago O'Hare (152) and Newark Liberty (139) came next. Thunderstorms were the cause listed on 47 percent of all ground stops.
The data also shows how last year's holiday rush went. During Thanksgiving week 2025, from Saturday, Nov. 22 through Sunday, Nov. 30, the FAA issued 44 ground stops at 18 US airports and 23 ground delay programs. The worst day was the Sunday after Thanksgiving, with 11 ground stops and 10 delay programs. Chicago O'Hare had the most stops that week, 10, totaling about 14 hours.
“A ground stop is when a trip falls apart, but nobody keeps a running count of them. The FAA publishes every one in its advisories. We count them so travelers and reporters can see which airports stop the most, how long the stops last and why.”
The ranking includes
- The top 50 US airports by ground stops, with the typical length of a stop, total hours stopped, ground delay programs, days affected and the most common cause.
- A day-by-day table of Thanksgiving week and the airports that stopped most often.
- A methodology note and a CSV of every airport with at least one ground stop, free to reuse under a CC BY 4.0 license with credit to ATIS Alerts.
- A link to the live FAA delay board, which shows every ground stop and delay program in effect right now.
The ranking is at atisalerts.com/faa-delays/most-ground-stops.
About ATIS Alerts
atisalerts.com is a free aviation-weather website and Telegram alert service, independently built and operated in Longwood, Florida. The site puts live METAR, TAF and D-ATIS for every US airport on one page, alongside runway-by-runway wind and configuration intelligence, FAA delay and TFR tracking, multi-year weather rankings, and free pilot tools. Its Telegram bot messages pilots the moment an ATIS broadcast changes or the weather drops below their personal minimums. ATIS Alerts is not affiliated with the FAA, and nothing on the site is approved for operational use: it is a planning and situational-awareness aid, and pilots must verify conditions with official FAA-approved sources before flight.
Media contact
support@atisalerts.com. Put “Press” in the subject line. Screenshots and logo files are available on request.
⚠️ Not for operational use. Always verify with official FAA-approved preflight weather sources before flight.