John Roberts had no idea his flight would be delayed when he left Maryland to visit Santa Barbara with his family, but the telecommunications failure that knocked out the city’s 9-1-1 service on Tuesday and part of Wednesday stalled the group’s travel plans.

“We flew into Las Vegas, and then we had to sit for a while. Then we got on another flight, but then we had to go back to our (original) flight. Then we got in here and they had to circle for a while, and then we (landed),” Roberts said.

He said their plane was originally supposed to arrive just before noon, but they ended up arriving at the Santa Barbara Airport around 2 p.m. Wednesday.

Service at the Santa Barbara Airport was restored at about 11:10 a.m., according to Christopher Hastert, the airport director. The Federal Aviation Administration issued a ground stop on Tuesday because of technical issues that prevented communication among different airports.

The loss of service was caused by construction crews that severed fiber cables owned by Frontier. The company said a third party was responsible for cutting the lines.

Hastert said the issue that caused the delays was not part of the airport’s functions, but on the federal side.

“My understanding is there is still some radio communication between the airplanes in the ground, but they could not communicate between the different facilities,” he told Noozhawk.

The FAA uses air traffic control towers to communicate among different airports and coordinate the arrival and departure of airplanes.

Hastert said 20 flights were affected by the outage on Wednesday, with some cancellations and others diversions to other airports. At least 15 flights were affected by the outage on Tuesday.

Even though the FAA has lifted the ground stop at the airport, Hastert said it may take time for the commercial airlines to get back on schedule.

“It will take some time for each of the five airlines to get back on their normal schedule, to get airplanes where they need to be and the people where they need to be, but I would anticipate by the end of the day they’ll be fully back tomorrow,” Hastert said Wednesday.

On the ground, travelers found themselves waiting for hours or pushing their flights to the next day. One woman who was scheduled to leave Santa Barbara on Sunday but was delayed by other issues and the outages said she was still waiting for confirmation of her rescheduled flight.

Some people decided not to wait around and ordered Ubers to take them to Los Angeles International Airport to reach their next flight.

While some passengers were frustrated by the delays, others took the opportunity to explore more of the South Coast.

Tracy Fitz was visiting Santa Barbara with his daughter over the weekend. The pair were originally supposed to leave just before noon to head back to Dallas, but their flight was delayed to the late afternoon.

Despite the delay, Fitz said they were able to use the extra few hours.

“We’re going home, and we didn’t have much to do. So, we were able to enjoy Montecito and Santa Barbara for a couple of hours longer,” Fitz said. “I’ve turned it into a positive.”