The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) initiated a nationwide ground stop for all American Airlines flights on Christmas Eve morning. The administration reports that the grounding was at the request of the airline and due to a technical issue affecting flights.
The ground stop comes on one of the busiest travel days of the year when thousands of passengers are taking to the skies to see their loved ones for Christmas Day.
Technical issue grounds flights
At just before 08:00 ET on December 24, 2024, the FAA issued a NOTAM grounding all American Airlines flights. The nationwide ground stop affected all mainline American flights as well as its regional subsidiaries.ย
It seems the issue may now be resolved, as a new advisory has been issued stating the ground stop is canceled. Worried passengers reported on social media that they were unable to board their flights, but in the last few minutes, some have begun boarding.
Comments shared by passengers waiting at airports suggest the software that is used for weight and balance calculations of aircraft was malfunctioning. It seems American has got the system up and running again, which will come as a relief for all.
Festive technical outages
The prospect of a technical outage would strike fear in the hearts of anyone who has been affected by such incidents in recent months. Itโs been only six months since the huge Crowdstrike outage saw thousands of flights delayed and canceled, with some airlines taking months to recover.
Then, of course, there was Southwest Airlinesโ massive meltdown over the holidays in 2022, when two million passengers were stranded and almost 17,000 flights canceled.ย
Thankfully, American Airlines seems to have its systems back in order in time for the big day. It remains to be seen if the delays this morning have any knock-on effects on its scheduling.