American Airlines has recommenced its flights after a temporary suspension of approximately one hour on Tuesday due to a technical issue affecting the systems required for plane dispatch.
The nationwide pause was lifted shortly before 13:00 GMT, as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) confirmed. This interruption occurred on one of the year’s busiest travel days, as passengers travelled on Christmas Eve.
In an official statement, American Airlines attributed the problem to a “vendor technology issue” and assured that efforts were being maximised to minimise further disruptions.
The airline stated, “We sincerely apologise to our customers for the inconvenience this morning.
“It’s all hands on deck as our team is working diligently to get customers where they need to go as quickly as possible.”
Despite ongoing delays as the airline recovers from the widespread issue, real-time tracking website Flightradar24 indicates that flights are once again departing from several major US travel hubs. Passengers took to social media to report being stranded on the tarmac or at gates during the approximately one-hour outage.
In July, American Airlines, along with other major operators, grounded flights across the United States due to communication issues stemming from a global IT crash. This previous incident, which also affected banks and emergency services, was caused by a faulty software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike.
Frances Ibiefo
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