American Airlines said on Tuesday its flights had resumed after a technical glitch forced the carrier to issue an hour-long ground stop, disrupting travel for thousands on Christmas Eve, one of the busiest periods of the year.
A vendor technology issue briefly affected its ability to get planes in the air, the carrier said, without identifying the provider.
While customers were still pressing for details on their delayed flights, the relatively brief stoppage means American will likely avoid a full-scale meltdown that could ripple for days during the peak holiday travel season.
“Not a good start to Christmas Eve travel as current flight is grounded and Captain cannot provided ETA on resolution from system outage and/or paperwork error at national level. Will make connections or refunds more complicated too,” a user had said, tagging American Airlines on X.
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The company’s shares were down 0.3% in morning trading.
Airlines can request their own ground stops, which affect only …