Thousands of travelers were stuck at airports on Tuesday as American Airlines briefly grounded all its flights in the US due to a technical issue. The airline’s largest hub, Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, was severely affected, with only 15% of flights departing on time, according to aviation data company Cirium.
The trouble began when systems needed to release flights malfunctioned, prompting a vendor technology issue. Bad weather further exacerbated the problem, causing thunderstorms that delayed flights for over two hours at DFW airport. The delay was so severe that some passengers waited at the airport for 18 hours before being able to board their flights.
The disruption came as the aviation industry is already reeling from recent setbacks. A global technology outage in July affected several US airlines, and a Christmas Eve flight meltdown by Southwest Airlines last year resulted in the grounding of over two million passengers and cost the airline $1 billion.
As travelers planned for Christmas Day, the Dallas-Fort Worth region was expected to have cloudy but otherwise calm weather. However, travelers passing through the airport after the holiday may face another round of thunderstorms on Thursday, according to the National Weather Service’s forecast.
American Airlines has not yet commented on when it expects all delayed flights to be cleared. The airline has over 3,300 domestic flights scheduled for Tuesday and 581 international departures, making it the largest carrier in the US by number of seats.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/24/business/american-air-flights-grounded.html