A “technical issue” led US Airways to briefly issue a nationwide ground grounding on Christmas Eve morning, grounding more than 100 flights on one of the busiest travel days of the year.
But what exactly happened, how long did the ground stop last, and did flights resume? Here’s what we know.
When was the American Airlines ground stop issued?
The ground stop was issued by the Federal Aviation Administration just before 6:30 a.m. CT on Tuesday.
The airlines said: “There is a technical issue that affected US flights this morning.” “Our teams are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible, and we apologize to our customers for the inconvenience.”
FAA warning It indicated that the company issued a request to completely ground its flights.
In social media responses to frustrated travellers, the airline said: “Our team is currently working to rectify this matter. Your continued patience is appreciated.”
The ground stop, according to FAA order timestamps, took exactly one hour.
According to NBC News, American flights began boarding shortly after about an hour, with the airline telling NBC News it was seeing an improvement.
Why did American Airlines issue a ground stop?
The airline issued a statement just before 8 a.m. Cairo time, saying that a “supplier technical issue” led to the grounding of the plane.
“A technical issue with suppliers briefly affected flights this morning,” the statement said. “This issue has been resolved and flights have resumed. We sincerely apologize to our customers for the inconvenience this morning. All is well as our team is working hard to get customers where they need to be as quickly as possible.”
According to the airline, “technology has affected flight launch systems.” The airline encouraged customers to find the latest flight information on the American Airlines mobile app or website.
In a report from NBC News, social media users were delayed at their doors king Problems with their presence have been reported Boarding passes were scanned.
Social media users They were reported to have been instructed to get off the plane at airports across the country, including Chicago O’Hare International Airport.
In December 2022, Southwest Airlines 2 million passengers were strandedand Delta Airlines She suffered a smaller but major breakdown after that Technology outages around the world In July due to A Faulty software update From cybersecurity company CrowdStrike.
Many flights are sold out during the holidays, making cancellations more annoying than during slower periods. Even with only a short outage, cancellations have a ripple effect that can take days to go away.
Delays and cancellations at Chicago airports
The stoppage occurred with millions of passengers expected to travel over the next 10 days.
As of 7:30 a.m. CT Tuesday, O’Hare reported one cancellation and an average delay of 18 minutes, according to the website. flychicago.com He said. The website showed that no cancellations were reported at Midway Airport.
However, delays were piling up at O’Hare. flychicago.com reported more than 200 delays in the past 24 hours.
Flight Aware, which tracks flights around the country and the world, showed 24 cancellations at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday within, within or outside the United States.
Earlier Tuesday, that number was more than 100.
The Chicago Department of Aviation said more than 3 million passengers are expected to travel through O’Hare and Midway International Airports in Chicago through January 2. CDA expects Sunday 29 December to be Medway’s busiest day, with more than 51,000 people passing through the airport.
Nationally, Transportation Security Administration It expects to examine 40 million travelers during the holidays until January 2.
