Their gate might be occupied by a flight that can't leave.
Not to mention they won't have enough staff to operate the gate equipment for all gates at once.
[delayed]
Re:FAA Issues National Ground Stop
by superturkey650 on Friday November 13, 2026 @05:41PM
(#50491126)
You don't have to go to a gate to deplane and this is an extremely rare event. They'll just pull up a staircase and have them deplane to a shuttle eventually.
Most U.S. airports aren't equipped to deplane commercial airliners using stairs, especially at this scale.
You empty the planes at the gates and then push them back to parking (or park them on the runway if needed).
Re:FAA Issues National Ground Stop
by stockresearcher on Friday November 13, 2026 @06:00PM
(#50491368)
O’Hare is under construction. They’re building an entire new terminal and are operating with a lot less spare capacity while that happens.
Re:FAA Issues National Ground Stop
by Aboutplants on Friday November 13, 2026 @04:46PM
(#50490325)
Standard protocol. Doesn’t matter what the issue is, you follow it
Re:FAA Issues National Ground Stop
by loloquwowndueo on Friday November 13, 2026 @04:49PM
(#50490365)
Doesn’t mean you wouldn’t still want to know why.
not enough gates
We are 6th in line waiting for a gate while they tow grounded planes off of the gates. Normally those flights would have departed and we would get a gate fairly quickly, but if no one is taking off, then they need to move them, and potentially deplane the (angry) departing passengers.
waiting on the stairs since all the gates are full
Is it something else?