American Airlines grounds flights temporarily due to technical issue

American Airlines experienced a temporary grounding of all flights on Christmas Eve due to a "technical issue," as reported by the BBC. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued and later canceled a nationwide groundstop for American Airlines' mainline and subsidiary flights. This groundstop lasted for about an hour, starting at 11:49 UTC.

American Airlines addressed the situation in a statement to Simple Flying, stating, "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."

Data from Flightradar24 indicated that many American Airlines aircraft were already airborne before the FAA's groundstop was enacted. However, Charlotte Douglas International Airport, a significant hub for American Airlines, experienced major disruptions with an average departure delay of 76 minutes.