- American Airlines flights were held at airports around the country as the company dealt with what it called a systemwide IT outage Tuesday.
- The FAA issued a temporary ground stop for the airline due to the outage, which impacted the company’s technological infrastructure.
- As of 6:20 p.m. CT, the FAA updated the message to say the ground stop had been lifted at most U.S. airports, stating, “Systems are coming back online now and flights are departing again,” the company said on social media.
- In addition to grounding flights, the airline said it was unable to provide service on its mobile apps for customers looking to book or change flights.
- The outage resulted in over 1,000 flights being canceled at O’Hare Airport in the last 24 hours, with nearly 600 facing more than 45 minutes of delays.
- At Midway, 222 flights were delayed, the majority of which being less than half an hour, with 13 total cancellations.
American Airlines experienced a significant operational disruption on Tuesday due to a systemwide IT outage, which led to a temporary ground stop mandated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The outage affected the airline's technological infrastructure, causing widespread delays and cancellations across the country.12
The FAA's ground stop specifically targeted American Airlines, halting all flights that had not yet taken off. As of 6:20 p.m. CT, the FAA reported that the ground stop had been lifted at most U.S. airports. The airline acknowledged the issue, stating, “A technology issue briefly impacted connectivity for some of our systems on Tuesday evening.”3
In addition to grounding flights, American Airlines faced challenges in providing customer service, as its mobile apps were down and phone lines were overwhelmed. The airline apologized for the inconvenience, emphasizing that “Systems are coming back online now and flights are departing again.”
The impact was particularly severe at O'Hare Airport, where over 1,000 flights were canceled in the last 24 hours, with nearly 600 flights experiencing delays of more than 45 minutes. At Midway Airport, 222 flights were delayed, most by less than half an hour, with a total of 13 cancellations reported.
American Airlines is working to restore normal operations following the outage, which has raised concerns about the reliability of its technological systems.
“The IT outage affected American Airlines' technological infrastructure, leading to significant disruptions, including over 1,000 flight cancellations at O'Hare Airport alone. As systems began to recover, the airline apologized for the inconvenience and noted that connectivity issues had impacted customer service operations.”
NBC 5 Chicago
Chicago Sun-Times
