Ground stop

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Ground stop" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (September 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

A ground stop is an air traffic control measure that slows or halts the flow of an aircraft inbound to a given airport. In other words, a ground stop is the halting of departing aircraft destined for one particular airport or for a specific geographic area.^[1]

For example, if a ground stop is called for Newark Liberty International Airport, aircraft departing for Newark from other airports will not be given departure clearance until such time that the ground stop in Newark is lifted. This allows, in this example, for Newark to deal with the task at hand preparing for arriving aircraft once the ground stop is lifted.

Ground stops may occur during an operational event, a thunderstorm, due to the danger of wind shear, hail, or another weather-related hazard.

A ground stop does not affect flights en route.^{[citation needed]}

As a possible downstream effect, flights that have not departed their airport of origin could be delayed or cancelled by the carrier.^{[citation needed]}