American Airlines was forced to ground all its aircraft briefly because of technical issues and bad weather, which affected the Christmas plans of thousands of United States citizens. Dallas Fort Worth International Airport was the worst hit and is believed to be at the heart of the glitch. However, despite the delays, American Airlines later confirmed that the issue was resolved and its planes were operational.
"We have resolved a vendor technology issue that briefly affected flights this morning. We sincerely apologize to our customers for the inconvenience and have issued a travel alert to allow for additional flexibility," @AmericanAir said on X (formerly Twitter).
We have resolved a vendor technology issue that briefly affected flights this morning. We sincerely apologize to our customers for the inconvenience and have issued a travel alert to allow for additional flexibility. https://t.co/lAp094H8cx
— americanair (@AmericanAir) December 24, 2024
It was not immediately known when AA and the Dallas airport expected to clear all delayed flights. The issue began on Tuesday morning due to a vendor technology issue, American Airlines said in a statement. As scores were stuck at airports on Christmas Eve, here are five latest updates about American Airlines technical issues and flight status.
1. First and foremost, American Airlines said on Tuesday its flights had resumed after a technical glitch forced the carrier to issue an hour-long ground stop. The issue that briefly affected the carrier's ability to get its planes in the air involved network hardware and was caused by DXC Technology, an operating system vendor responsible for maintaining its flight operations, the airline said.
Adverse weather further complicated the situation, although the technical issue was reportedly resolved in an hour. The New York Times reported that a system of storms prompted a flood warning in Dallas, and hundreds of flights were delayed as a consequence.
2. In simple terms, the issue was reportedly the inability of an automated system to calculate or deliver weight and balance (passenger/baggage/cargo mass and overall centre of gravity) data required to legally dispatch each flight, said Robert Mann, a former airline executive who now runs a consulting firm. The management system may have been unable to load and compute engine power requirements and takeoff performance, he reportedly told Reuters.
3. The thunderstorms caused average departure delays of more than two hours at Dallas Fort Worth for most of the day but began to decrease to just over an hour on Tuesday night. In the said period, only 15 per cent of American Airlines flights at Dallas Fort Worth managed to take off on time. AA was also forced request a ground stop for flights headed to the airport and it lasted for over four hours, the NYT report said.
4. On its part, the Federal Aviation Administration, the government agency within the U.S. Department of Transportation which regulates civil aviation, lifted its nationwide ground stop order for all American flights. The FAA in a statement said American requested a nationwide ground stop but it referred all questions to the airline for more information.
5. Meanwhile, Reuters confirmed that only 19 of the 3,901 AA flights scheduled worldwide on Tuesday were cancelled. 36% of the flights managed to arrive on time despite the issues. All things conisidered, AA will not cancel more planes, experts believe as the already struggling US civil aviation sector cannot take another blow, particularly in the holiday season.
