UPDATE: American Airlines flights are back in service after a nationwide ground stop earlier today due to “technical issues.”
“Due to a vendor technical issue, our flight operations were temporarily affected this morning,” American Airlines said in a statement. “That issue has been resolved and flights have resumed.”
“We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this morning caused to our customers,” the statement added. “Our team is fully committed to getting our customers where they need to be, as quickly as possible.”
The ground stop lasted approximately one hour.
5:11 a.m.: American Airlines has grounded all flights within the United States due to what it described as a “technical issue” in a statement Tuesday morning.
“We are experiencing a technical issue that is impacting American Airlines flights this morning,” an American Airlines spokesperson told CNN on Tuesday morning. “Our team is working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible and we apologize for any inconvenience this may cause our customers.”
CNN first reported the outage, citing an advisory notice from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The newspaper reported that the FAA said in a statement that American had requested a nationwide ground stop, but referred all questions to the airline for further details.
Passengers traveling for Christmas began sharing complaints about delays and diversions on social media early Tuesday morning. In a now widely shared video posted from the packed Fort Lauderdale airport, airport officials say the “systems are down” and confirm that crew members will not be able to board the tannoy.
American Airlines has not released a formal timeline for resolving the issue, but told passengers on Flight X that they are “working to resolve the issue in the shortest possible time.”
American Airlines’ response said, “Your safety is our top priority. Once this issue is resolved, we will get you safely to your destination.”
This is not the first time the national airline has encountered serious technical problems during the busy holiday period. In 2022, Southwest Airlines canceled more than 16,900 flights due to an operational meltdown, stranding millions of passengers. The airline faced significant staffing challenges due to the severe storm, leaving flight attendants and pilots unprepared for the next flight, passengers’ baggage piling up, and plane de-icing delayed. was. In 2023, the company was fined a record $140 million by the U.S. government.
