American Airlines Restores Operations Following Technical Glitch

American Airlines has reinstated its flight schedule after temporarily suspending services for approximately one hour on Tuesday due to a technical issue that affected the systems required for aircraft departures. The nationwide grounding was lifted just before 13:00 GMT, as confirmed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). This disruption occurred on Christmas Eve, a day recognized as one of the year’s busiest for travel, with numerous passengers undertaking journeys. In an official statement, the airline attributed the problem to a “vendor technology issue” and stated it was “all hands on deck” to minimize further interruptions. The airline conveyed its apologies, saying, “We sincerely apologise to our customers for the inconvenience this morning.” It further added, “It’s all hands on deck as our team is working diligently to get customers where they need to go as quickly as possible.” While departure boards at major US airports continue to show delays of up to two hours for some flights as the airline recovers from the system-wide problem, the real-time tracking website Flightradar24 indicates that aircraft are once again taking off from several key US travel hubs, with most flights departing on time. Passengers reported on social media being stranded on the tarmac or at gates as flights were impacted by the approximately one-hour outage. Some travelers were also instructed to disembark from their planes. A video shared on X by a CBS reporter in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, showed a gate agent announcing that a flight bound for Philadelphia was preparing to board. The agent stated from a gate, “The system is slowly coming back.” In July, American Airlines, among other major operators, had grounded flights across the US due to communication issues caused by a global IT crash. That particular system failure, which also affected banks and emergency services, was attributed to a faulty software update from cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike. Copyright 2024 BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking.