Associated Press

American Airlines flights were cleared to fly by federal regulators early Tuesday after a brief grounding due to a system-wide technical issue that affected all U.S. routes.

Shortly before 7 a.m. Eastern Time, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered all American Airlines flights to be suspended in the United States at the airline’s request. American had reported a technical issue that affected its entire system and caused millions of people to travel on vacation.

The ground stop lasted exactly one hour, according to the timestamps on the FAA orders.

American did not explain what technical issue led to the grounding, and the airline did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

For the millions of travelers expected to fly over the next ten days, the flight ban couldn’t come at a worse time.

The Transportation Security Administration expects 40 million passengers to be screened over the holidays and through Jan. 2.

In December 2022, Southwest Airlines stranded 2 million travelers and Delta Air Lines suffered a smaller but significant collapse following a global technology outage in July caused by a faulty software update from cybersecurity company CrowdStrike.

Many flights during the holidays are sold out, making cancellations even more disruptive than during quieter times. Even with just a brief outage, the outages have a cascading effect that can take days to resolve.

Originally published: December 24, 2024 at 8:00 am EST