Some flights have been cleared to take off from US airports after an air traffic control outage prompted a nationwide ground stop.

The Federal Aviation Administration has yet to confirm when normal departures will resume.

Aviation publication The Air Current reported that the FAA had begun clearing some flights from the US to Europe individually. Alaska Airlines said its flights from the US West Coast to Hawaii had been able to continue and its international departures from Honolulu had been cleared.

The FAA announced the ground stop shortly before 10am Saturday New Zealand time after a telecommunications outage disrupted regional air traffic control centres. Aircraft already in the air were allowed to continue and land.

The Associated Press reported that the order was scheduled to run until at least 5pm Saturday New Zealand time. The agency had yet to announce when it would lift the restrictions nationwide.

By about 12.20pm New Zealand time, at least 10,500 flights within, into or out of the US had been delayed and more than 2,700 cancelled, Business Insider reported.

US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said FAA technicians were investigating the outage. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said officials had seen no indication of a deliberate attack.

It is the first nationwide ground stop since January 2023, when a failure in the system that sends safety alerts to pilots halted domestic departures for less than two hours.