EPAAmerican Airlines has resumed flights after suspending operations for about an hour on Tuesday due to a technical issue that affected the systems needed to clear its planes.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the nationwide stop was lifted just before 1:00 p.m. GMT.
The disruption occurred on one of the busiest travel days of the year as passengers traveled on Christmas Eve.
In a statement, the airline said an “issue with the provider’s technology” was the cause of the problem and that it was “all hands on deck” to minimize further disruption.
“We sincerely apologize to our customers for the inconvenience this morning,” the airline said.
“It’s all hands on deck as our team works diligently to get customers where they need to go as quickly as possible.”
Departure boards at major U.S. airports are still showing delays of up to two hours for some flights as the airline recovers from the nationwide problem. However, real-time tracking website Flightradar24 shows that planes are starting again at a number of major US travel hubs and most flights are departing on time.
Passengers reported on social media that they were stuck on the tarmac or at gates as flights were affected by the outage for about an hour.
Some passengers were also asked to leave their planes.
In a video posted on X by a CBS reporter in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, a gate agent announced that a flight to Philadelphia would begin boarding.
“The system is slowly coming back,” the agent announced from a gate.
In July, American Airlines joined other major operators Flight bans in the USA due to communication issues caused by a global IT crash.
This outage, which also affected banks and emergency services, was caused by a faulty software update from cybersecurity company Crowdstrike.
