American Airlines, the world’s largest airline, grounded all its U.S. flights on Christmas Eve due to an unspecified technical issue, according to news agency Reuters. Air traffic is typically at its highest during the Christmas and New Year period in the U.S.
“Our teams are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible, and we apologize to our customers for the inconvenience,” the airline said in a statement.
🚨BREAKING
AMERICAN AIRLINES GROUNDED
A software outage that prevents extremely important weight and balance calculations has grounded ALL American Airlines flights nationwide! The airline is working on a fix but hasn’t provided a timeline. This is the main reason I don’t fly… pic.twitter.com/FKKgcOM9rn— John Cremeans USA (@JohnCremeansUSA) December 24, 2024
Announcements were made at airports just as passengers were preparing to board. A video from a U.S. airport showed airline staff informing passengers, “They will give an update every 15 minutes and let them know what is going on… Our system is down and we cannot put the crew on or board any customer… We are working on it.”
The issue occurred on Christmas Eve morning, a day expected to set a new travel record, according to AAA. Many passengers shared their frustrations on social media, especially regarding canceled or delayed flights at airports just hours before their scheduled departures.
Shares of American Airlines dropped 3.8% before the market opened, Reuters reported. The airline has yet to issue a formal statement on social media but is responding to complaints on X, Facebook, and Bluesky.
This incident follows a global Microsoft outage earlier in the year, which led to disruptions for airlines, banks, and other businesses. During that outage, the U.S. briefly grounded all planes, with flights in other countries also affected. It was one of the largest IT failures in recent history, disrupting global communication and air travel.
