This article covers a developing story. Continue to check back with us as we will be adding more information as it becomes available.
American Airlines
had briefly grounded all flights with a groundstop issued by the FAA. According to the BBC, the carrier has grounded all services due to a “technical issue”.
Christmas Eve will see many travelers flying to see friends, loved ones, or simply to escape to warmer weather. Thankfully, it seems as though the American Airlines grounding wasn’t as bad as previously thought, with flights reportedly slowly getting back into the skies.
FAA issues then cancels groundstop
As a result of the grounding from American Airlines, the FAA quickly issued and then canceled a nationwide groundstop for all American Airlines mainline and subsidiary flights. The ground stop was valid for around an hour from 11:49 UTC, as follows,
EVENT TIME: 24/1149 – 24/1300
DESTINATION AIRPORT: ALL
DEP FACILITIES INCLUDED: ALL
PROBABILITY OF EXTENSION: MED
IMPACTING CONDITION: COMPANY REQUEST
COMMENTS: NATIONWIDE GROUNDSTOP FOR AAL MAIN AND SUBS
However, at 12:50 UTC, the Federal Aviation Administration issued another notice canceling the groundstop,
DESTINATION AIRPORT: ALL
RELEASED FACILITIES: ALL
REMARKS: NATIONWIDE GROUNDSTOP FOR AAL MAIN AND SUBS CANCELED
Are things already returning to normal?
Data from Flightradar24 shows hundreds of aircraft with an American Airlines flight number in the sky, most of which will have taken off before the groundstop was issued by the FAA. The popular flight tracker shows that Charlotte Douglas International Airport
(CLT) (a major American Airlines hub) currently has a disruption factor of 5 (the scale goes up to 5 with 3.5-5 described as “Major problems with long delays and several canceled flights”).
The average departure delay at Charlotte currently sits at 76 minutes (1 hour 16 minutes). While the lasting impact to passengers will hopefully not be as bad as it could be, this will still cause inconvenience for passengers traveling.
Simple Flying has reached out to a representative of American Airlines for comment.