Major UAE airlines, Emirates and Etihad, have officially confirmed that their flight schedules to and from the United States remain entirely unaffected despite a massive air traffic control failure that crippled operations across several East Coast hubs. While thousands of passengers faced cancellations and significant delays at major airports including Newark, Philadelphia, and New York’s JFK, representatives from both carriers stated that their services have continued to operate as planned.

The chaos originated from a critical communications failure at a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) facility in Philadelphia. Reports indicate that a primary line went down on Monday, and the backup system was rendered useless after being accidentally severed by construction crews in New Jersey. The resulting outage left controllers without radar or communication capabilities for several hours, leading to hundreds of flight cancellations. While US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed that repairs were completed by Monday evening, the incident has reignited concerns regarding the reliability of America’s aging aviation infrastructure, particularly as the system struggles to manage high-profile events like the United Nations General Assembly.