Track US Airport Flight Delays on Mac Without Endless Tabs

What the October 28 operations plan listed

The FAA current operations plan advisory checked during Asia-morning research on October 29, 2026, was ATCSCC advisory 083, issued October 28 at 23:25Z. Its event window starts October 29 at 0000Z.

That plan said ground delay programs were in place at Newark (EWR) and Teterboro (TEB) because of a Philadelphia Area C staffing trigger. It also listed staffing triggers at New York Center TMU (ZNY), Atlanta Center Area 6 (ZTL), Albuquerque Center (ZAB), and Las Vegas TRACON (L30). The times below are printed on that plan. The Eastern column converts those Zulu times with the US still on EDT (UTC−4).

The same advisory lists runway and taxiway notes at several airports, including Houston (HOU), Nashville (BNA), and Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW), plus others such as JFK, Boston, Miami, Denver, Seattle, San Francisco, and Dulles. Those lines are closure windows on the plan. They are a different fact from a ground delay program.

Reporting on the second day of staffing delays named Newark, Chicago O'Hare, Nashville, Dallas, and Houston. The plan checked here puts runway notes on BNA, HOU, and DFW. It puts the active ground delay programs on EWR and TEB. It does not place O'Hare in a ground delay program.

A separate public-tracker snapshot, baked into the widget on this page at the same research time, showed delay activity at EWR, LAS, MIA, and SNA. That four-airport set is a snapshot. It is a different list from the news airports and from the FAA staffing-trigger list. Reopen the FAA plan before you treat any of these rows as still in effect. Triggers on this advisory expire on the clock printed above.

Search interest in "us airport flight delays cancellations" spiked while this was in the news.

Delay programs and staffing triggers expire on the advisory clock. A board you can reopen over your work beats a screenshot from the last time you checked.

Set up an airport delay board in Kepo

Kepo keeps small widgets in a floating panel you open with a global shortcut, over any app, including full-screen ones. Three widgets cover a delay day: a status board for your airports, a news feed, and one airport-code watch.

1. A status board for your airports (built with AI)

Describe the widget around the airports on your itinerary, not a national map of every delay.

• Prompt example: "Show a US airport delay board for EWR, ORD, BNA, DFW, and HOU from public FAA or flight-status sources: ground delay or ground stop if one is active, and a short delay note. Refresh every 10 minutes."
• Check it: compare the first result with the FAA operations plan before you rely on it. Keep the list to airports you will actually look at.

The preview on this page is a static snapshot from research time: delayed flights at 3,000+, delay airports called out as EWR plus LAS, MIA, and SNA, and an EWR arrivals note of about 30 minutes from the FAA note in that coverage. It does not refresh by itself in the browser.

2. Headlines, and the FAA plan as the source you open

• Widget: RSS Reader, pointed at one news feed you already use for aviation headlines.
• What it shows: the newest headlines with links. It will not reproduce the FAA raw plan.
• The plan itself: use the FAA current operations plan when you need the staffing triggers and ground delay programs in the FAA's own wording. That page is a database view with a timed refresh. Treat a pinned copy as easy to go stale, and reopen the plan when a number matters.

3. Your airport code on X

• Widget: X Keyword Watch from the X widgets.
• Keyword: the airport code you are flying, for example EWR, ORD, BNA, DFW, or HOU.
• What it shows: the latest posts from X's Live results for that keyword. Sign in to X first for reliable results. One code is enough. A second widget for a second airport is easier to scan than one keyword that matches the whole country.

Tracker tabs vs one shortcut panel

Keep the panel small. The status board and one feed answer most checks. Add the keyword watch only for the airport you are actually using.

Before you install

Kepo runs on Macs with Apple silicon (M1 or later) and macOS 12 or later. There is no Intel version. Details are in Kepo system requirements.

New to widgets on the Mac? Start with the built-in Mac desktop widgets, browse free widgets for Mac, or build custom Mac widgets for sources Apple does not cover.

FAQ

Where do I read the FAA delay plan?

The current operations plan advisory is on the FAA site at fly.faa.gov/adv/adv_spt. The copy checked for this article was advisory 083 from October 28, 2026, 23:25Z. Open that page again for anything later than the table above.

Which airports were in the news, and which were on the widget snapshot?

Reporting named Newark, Chicago O'Hare, Nashville, Dallas, and Houston. The FAA plan checked here had ground delay programs at EWR and TEB, plus staffing triggers that included PHL Area C, ZNY TMU, ZTL, and L30. The widget snapshot from public trackers at research time listed EWR, LAS, MIA, and SNA. Use the list that matches the question you are asking, then recheck the FAA plan.

Can this widget rebook my flight?

No. The panel shows status, headlines, and posts. Ticket changes stay in the airline's app or on the airline's site.

Will the widget alert me when a ground delay lifts?

The widgets in this setup are for glancing: open the panel and see the current state. They do not send notifications by themselves. Staffing triggers on an FAA plan also expire at the Zulu time printed on that plan.

Keep the delay board one shortcut away

Put the airports on your trip on one status board, keep a news feed beside it, and watch a single airport code if the chatter matters. Download Kepo for your Apple silicon Mac and add the first widget in a few minutes.