American Airlines: Tech issue briefly halts flights [Video]

WASHINGTON –

American Airlines briefly grounded flights nationwide Tuesday because of a technical problem just as the Christmas travel season kicked into overdrive and winter weather threatened more potential problems for those planning to fly or drive.

Government regulators cleared American flights to get airborne about an hour after the Federal Aviation Administration ordered a national ground stop for the airline. The order, which prevented planes from taking off, was issued at the airline’s request after it experienced trouble with its flight operating system, or FOS. The airline blamed technology from one of its vendors.

• Download the CTV News App for breaking news alerts and video on all the top stories

As a result, flights were delayed across American’s major hubs, with only 37 per cent of the airline’s 3,901 domestic and international flights leaving on time, according to Cirium, an aviation analytics company. Nineteen flights were canceled.

Dennis Tajer, a spokesperson …