Travel Nightmare: American Airlines Grounds All Flights on Christmas Eve
American Airlines temporarily grounded all flights early Christmas Eve due to an unspecified “technical issue.”
Approximately an hour later, the Federal Aviation Administration lifted the nationwide ground stop, allowing flights to resume the boarding process, as reported by ABC News.
According to the Associated Press, the airline issued a statement shortly before 7 a.m. ET.
@AmericanAir on our flight to Miami and st croix from St. Louis. Sitting on the plane. System wide outage? What is going on?
— Dr. Michelle Sencibaugh (@ChasingBirdsSTL) December 24, 2024
“We’re currently experiencing a technical issue with all American Airlines flights,” the message stated. “Your safety is our utmost priority, once this is rectified, we’ll have you safely on your way to your destination.”
Speaking to ABC, the airline acknowledged uncertainty about when the issue would be resolved. “Our teams are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible, and we apologize to our customers for the inconvenience.”
For passengers traveling during one of the busiest days of the year, the news was far from welcome.
Some travelers immediately directed frustration toward the airline.
@AmericanAir 24th December morning and system goes down. Boarding passes not verified. Time to rethink loyalty with you. No wonder United and Delta are doing better than you.
— sibasisha padhy (@sdrdpadhy) December 24, 2024
Fly @AmericanAir for the first time in ages and the whole system is down… back to delta and United I go
— Shup Medusa (@ShupMedusa) December 24, 2024
Others expressed concern about the lack of details regarding the cause of the outage and the potential wider implications.
American Airlines flight out of Cedar Rapids sent back to the gate due to a nationwide software outage. Nothing says Merry Christmas quite like a ... Cyber attack? Any other airlines experiencing outages? @AmericanAir @KCRG @nytimes @usa
— Ashley Smith (@AshleyS87018180) December 24, 2024
“American has not expanded on what technical issue grounded the flights, and the airline did not immediately respond to a request for comment,” the Associated Press reported.
Although the issue seems to have been resolved quickly, it may still result in ongoing disruptions for travelers.
“Many flights during the holidays are sold out, which makes cancellations even more disruptive than during slower periods,” the outlet explained.
“Even with just a brief outage, the cancellations have a cascading effect that can take days to clear up.”