American Airlines Ground Stop Brings Delays Across the U.S. on Christmas Eve

A last-minute Christmas surprise roiled holiday travel plans for thousands of passengers at one of the busiest times of the year.

For nearly an hour on Tuesday morning, Christmas Eve, a ground stop for American Airlines was issued after all its flights were held in the U.S. due to an unspecified technical issue. That ground stop has now been lifted.

“A vendor technology issue briefly affected flights this morning. That issue has been resolved and flights have resumed. We sincerely apologize 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,” the American said in a statement issued to Travel + Leisure.

The technology in question affected the ability for systems to release flights.

Ground stops can take a while to unravel and require Air Traffic Control to slot in the delayed flights as soon as possible. It’s a task that much harder at big hub airports than regional ones with lighter departure schedules.

While it is unclear yet how long the effects of the outage will take to unravel, certain American Airlines hubs like Charlotte Douglas International are already showing signs of severe disruptions. In response to one user on X asking how long it would take to get in the air, American responded, “At present, we don’t have an exact timeframe. Rest assured, our team is working on getting you back on track as soon as possible. We appreciate you hanging in there with us!”

Passengers who end up affected by the delays should consult the Department of Transportation dashboard for information on what type of compensation they might be eligible for. Customers can find the latest information on their flight using the mobile app and aa.com.