American Airlines temporarily grounded all its flights on Tuesday (December 24) due to technical issues, leading to delays in at least 961 flights.
According to reports from the Associated Press, on Tuesday morning, following a malfunction in American Airlines’ Flight Operating System (FOS), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a nationwide grounding order at the airline’s request. Approximately an hour later, the government regulatory agency approved the resumption of American Airlines flights. The airline attributed this incident to a technical problem with one of its suppliers.
Based on data from aviation analysis company Cirium, flights at American Airlines’ major hub airports experienced delays. Out of the airline’s 3901 domestic and international flights, only 37% took off on time, with 19 flights also being canceled.
The malfunction occurred in the FOS, a system used for various aviation operations including scheduling, flight planning, passenger boarding, and aircraft weight and balance data.
Cirium noted that most flights took off within two hours of their scheduled departure time. 36% of flights were expected to arrive at their destinations on time.
Flight tracking website FlightAware did not provide any American Airlines flight information on Tuesday morning, but in the afternoon, it showed that 961 American Airlines flights were delayed.
Many flights during the holiday period were already fully booked, so the cancellations by American Airlines disrupted the travel plans of many holidaymakers. Even a brief grounding of flights and cancellations can lead to a domino effect, potentially taking several days to rectify.
A spokesperson for American Airlines mentioned that Tuesday was not the peak day for the company’s operations. Compared to the busiest days, American Airlines had approximately 2000 fewer flights on Tuesday, providing the company with some buffer to address flight delays.