American Airlines flight services have resumed across the United States after they were temporarily grounded due to a technical issue impacting the airline’s entire system.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has announced that a ‘nationwide groundstop’ of all American Airlines flights has been lifted.
Earlier, the FAA reported a technical issue affecting the carrier’s entire system.
The problem has been resolved and the system is running again.
Delays are still expected after the hour-long outage with flight tracker Flightradar24 posting on X that “it will take some time for flights to get back to normal”.
Services are expected to be departing on time by the afternoon.
American Airlines flights to Europe temporarily grounded
The temporary disruption came as millions of people are travelling for the holiday season, including back home to Europe.
American Airlines flies to 15 countries in Europe with destinations including the UK, France, Germany and Italy.
In social media replies to frustrated travellers, the airline said: “Our team is currently working to rectify this. Your continued patience is appreciated.”
The company has now released a statement saying, “A vendor technology issue briefly affected flights this morning”.
“That issue has been resolved and flights have resumed. We sincerely apologize to our customers for the inconvenience this morning,” it continues.
“It’s all hands on deck as our team is working diligently to get customers where they need to go as quickly as possible.”
The FAA’s website confirmed that American Airlines requested a ‘nationwide groundstop’ for its flights, including those operated by its subsidiary airlines.
The timing of the grounding comes at a critical period, as the holiday season is one of the busiest travel periods.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) estimates it will screen 40 million passengers during the holidays, which run until 2 January.