Holiday travelers flying with American Airlines experienced widespread Christmas Eve disruptions on Tuesday after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced that the airline had grounded all of its flights nationwide.
The ground stop, which took place on one of the busiest travel days of the year, was lifted shortly after it was announced—sometime before 8 a.m. ET—but it appeared to cause delays well into the morning.
On social media, travelers expressed their frustration, with American Airlines explaining on X that it was working quickly to resolve the issue. “Rest assured, our team is working on getting you back on track as soon as possible,” the airline said in a reply to one traveler.
Earlier, American Airlines had said the stoppage was related to a “technical issue.” An advisory from the Philadelphia International Airport, meanwhile, alluded to “computer issues.”
Unspecified ‘vendor technology issue’ blamed
By later in the morning, American Airlines said it had encountered a “vendor technology issue.” The issue was fixed, the airline later said, and flights had resumed.
“We have resolved a vendor technology issue that briefly affected flights this morning,” AA said on social media. “We sincerely apologize to our customers for the inconvenience and have issued a travel alert to allow for additional flexibility.”
It added in an update on its website that it was waving change fees for passengers who are traveling through a number of airports on Tuesday, December 24. (You can find the full list here.)
As of late morning, American Airlines has not specified the vendor technology at issue. Fast Company has reached out to the airline for more details and will update this post if we hear back.
Shares of American Airlines Group (Nasdaq: AAL) held steady in early trading on Tuesday despite a torrent of news coverage about the travel disruptions. By early afternoon, the stock was trading at around $17.18 a share, down only slightly from its closing price of $17.25 on Monday.
According to data from AAA and Inrix, some 7.8 million U.S. travelers are expected to fly during the holiday period.
This story is developing…