American Airlines flights were authorized to fly early Tuesday after a brief suspension due to a system-wide technical issue that affected all routes in the United States.
Just before 7 a.m. Eastern Time, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered the suspension of all American Airlines flights in the United States at the airline’s request.
AA had reported a technical issue that was affecting their entire system, with millions of people traveling for the holidays.
The suspension, according to the timestamps on the FAA orders, lasted exactly one hour.
What was the issue that affected American Airlines?
American has not provided more details on what technical issue caused the flight suspension, and the airline did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
The suspensions could not have come at a worse time for the millions of travelers expected to fly during the next 10 days for the Christmas and New Year holidays.
The Transportation Security Administration expects 40 million passengers during the holidays and up to January 2nd.
In December 2022, Southwest Airlines stranded 2 million travelers, and Delta Air Lines experienced a minor but significant breakdown following a global technological blackout in July caused by a faulty software update from the cybersecurity company CrowdStrike.
Many flights during the holidays are sold out, making cancellations even more disruptive than during quieter periods. Even with a brief interruption, cancellations have a cascading effect that can take days to resolve.