American Airlines Resumes Boarding Flights After FAA Lifts Nationwide Groundstop

 New York

CNN —

After a brief outage that grounded all American Airlines flights during one of the busiest travel periods of the year, the airline announced it resumed service on Tuesday morning.

American Airlines initially cited a “technical issue” as the cause of the delays, which affected all flights in the United States. However, the airline began boarding flights again around 8 a.m. ET, according to spokeswoman Sarah Jantz.

In a later update, American Airlines clarified that a “vendor technology issue” had caused the disruption, but it has now been resolved, and flights have resumed.

“It’s all hands on deck as our team works diligently to get customers to their destinations as quickly as possible,” the airline said.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) lifted its nationwide groundstop order for all American Airlines flights. The FAA stated that American requested the groundstop but referred all further questions to the airline.

“We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience,” American Airlines added in a statement.

The outage occurred on a day when American Airlines was scheduled to operate over 3,300 domestic flights, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium. While the airline resumed service with some residual delays, it managed to avoid a significant number of cancellations.

“Expect some delays throughout the day, but we’re working to mitigate those and avoid cancellations,” said spokesperson Sarah Jantz. “We have a smaller schedule today and sufficient staffing to support a quick recovery.”

Nationwide, only 26 flights across all airlines were canceled, as reported by data tracker FlightAware. Over 1,000 flights into, within, and out of the United States were delayed, a number that increased shortly after the American Airlines outage, though airport congestion and winter weather in the Northeast may have contributed as well.

‘Complaining doesn’t seem quite right’

David Myers, a 62-year-old disaster consultant traveling from Salisbury, Maryland, to New Orleans with a layover in Charlotte, was alerted to the issue at 6 a.m. Tuesday morning. He and his wife were trying to spend Christmas with their children.

“It’s Christmas Eve, so complaining doesn’t seem quite right,” Myers told CNN. “And safety always comes first. But more information at the gate would be helpful.”

On social media, customers began reporting early Tuesday morning that some flights were returning to their gates, with delays of around 90 minutes.

“Captain says @AmericanAir software outage preventing weight & balance calculations ‘company-wide’ with no estimate on resolution. Flights unable to depart as a result. Not a good start to Christmas Eve travel!” one person posted on X.

In a video from Fort Lauderdale airport, an agent is heard saying, “Our system is down,” and that passengers were being kept at the gate.

American Airlines’ stock initially dropped nearly 3% in premarket trading but rose by 1% after the issue was resolved.

Service Outages

Holiday travel delays are common, but technical glitches and outages can make frustrating situations even worse.

In July, a global tech outage during the peak summer travel season led to widespread chaos. While most airlines recovered within a day, Delta’s systems took about a week to recover, affecting an estimated half a million passengers, ruining holiday plans, and prompting a federal investigation.

In December 2022, a massive winter storm that dumped several feet of snow across the U.S. led to widespread flight cancellations over the Christmas holiday. Though air travel returned to normal a few days later, Southwest Airlines continued to experience massive cancellations and delays due to its outdated scheduling systems, which were overwhelmed by the storm. The airline faced fines and lawsuits but has since upgraded its technology.