American Airlines ‘system outage’ grounds all flights sparking travel nightmare for thousands of passengers at Christmas

AN American Airlines system outage saw flights grounded for thousands of passengers, sparking widespread Christmas Eve travel chaos.

Passengers across the nation demanded answers from the carrier as some were being told to wait in boarding areas while others were ordered to de-plane aircraft.

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An American Airlines representative told The U.S. Sun that a technical issue had impacted all flights.

"Our teams are working to resolve the issues as quickly as possible, and we apologize to our customers for the inconvenience," they said.

Bosses at the Federal Aviation Administration issued a ground stop for all American Airlines flights - an order that has since been canceled.

Some passengers said they were delayed for at least 90 minutes.

Travelers also reported issues scanning boarding cards.

Travelers urged the carrier to provide more details as they were unexpectedly left sitting on the tarmac.

One passenger heading to Miami from St. Louis asked, "What is going on?".

"Your safety is our utmost priority, once this is rectified, we'll have you safely on your way to your destination," a representative said in response.

Another traveler, jetting out of Nashville, said she didn't want lengthy delays at the airport.

"American Air, just tell us whether we should go home or not," she said.

"Please don't make us wait in the airport for hours."

Travelers begged for frequent updates online, but officials could only say they're working to fix the issue.

"An estimated timeframe has not been provided, but they're trying to fix it in the shortest possible time," a representative said.

Frustrated travelers urged American Airlines to provide snacks following the inconvenience.

Meanwhile, others feared that they would miss their connecting flights.

"Will flights get shifted to the right," one traveler posted on X.

"It’s our honeymoon. This is a horrific inconvenience [at the] last minute."

The travel chaos upended the early morning travel plans of thousands, and delays are still likely - even though the ground stop is now over.

TRAVEL CHAOS

Footage taken at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood airport in Florida showed passengers waiting by the gate as airport staffers informed them about the situation.

Airport workers told passengers they would get regular 15-minute updates and explained that no one could board planes due to the outage.

One passenger, heading to Miami from Texas, told the ABC affiliate WPLG-TV that the pilot told travelers their plane couldn't take off.

"The pilot told us it’s the software that calculates the baggage weights for each flight, so no one can take off,” they said.

David Myers encountered chaos when he was trying to fly out to New Orleans from Salisbury, Maryland.

He slammed American Airlines for the lack of information, per CNN.

"It's Christmas Eve, so complaining doesn't seem quite right," he said.

"And safety always comes first. But more information at the gate would be helpful."

Another passenger at Boston Logan Airport revealed they've been told to de-plane their aircraft as a result.

In footage shared on X, travelers were told to collect their belongings and return to the boarding area.

Kevin Lighty, a meteorologist for the CBS affiliate WCIA-TV, was also told he had to deplane, he revealed in a Facebook post.

Also, footage from Louisville airport showed passengers congregating around desks and boarding gates.

"It's absolute chaos right here right now," local reporter Hayden Smith said.

"Louisville is a mid-sized airport so I can only imagine what places like Atlanta look like after the American Airlines systems glitch."

More than 2,000 outage reports were logged on Downdetector, and over 80% of these cite delays.

The outage comes as millions of Americans will take to the skies over the holidays.

Transportation Security Administration officials have revealed they expect to screen around 40 million passengers right up to January 2.

American Airlines said it expects its busiest travel day to be December 27.

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