Christmas Eve travel is off to a rocky start.
American Airlines encountered a technical problem Tuesday morning, and requested the Federal Aviation Administration to temporarily ground its flights, nationwide.
The disruption lasted about an hour but is expected to cause residual flight delays throughout the day Tuesday, airports warned — a day when millions more travelers are expected to fly.
Reports of the problems began to circulate widely shortly after 7 a.m. EST on Tuesday.
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In a statement to TPG, the Fort Worth-based carrier cited a technology issue at a third-party vendor affecting a system needed to release flights. The problem has since been resolved, American said.
“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 carrier said in a statement.
Residual delays expected
Tuesday’s flight troubles come in the midst of what’s expected to be a record-setting year-end travel rush. According to data from the Transportation Security Administration, at least 2.8 million travelers filled airports on Friday, Dec. 20, and Sunday, Dec. 22. More than 2.7 million passengers hit airports on Saturday, Dec. 21.
Generally speaking, air travel ran smoothly over the weekend — but Christmas Eve is already shaping up to be a trying day at airports.
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American has more than 3,300 domestic departures planned for Tuesday, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium — along with over 500 departing or inbound international flights. Its busiest airports Tuesday are, unsurprisingly, some of its biggest hubs, most notably Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT) and Miami International Airport (MIA).
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“The system is back up, but we expect residual delays,” Charlotte’s official airport account wrote Tuesday in a social media post.
Tuesday’s disruption comes after a generally smooth 2024, and holiday season, for air travel. Between January and mid-December, around 1.3% of flights on U.S. carriers were canceled, according to data from FlightAware. That’s far better than 2022, when cancellation rates collectively topped 2%.
To date this year, the only major operational “meltdown” at a U.S. airline came in July, when a global outage at cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike led to mass flight disruptions worldwide and helped trigger thousands of cancellations over several days at Delta Air Lines.
Of course, travelers have all-too-recent memories of Southwest Airlines’ 2022 holiday meltdown that saw close to 17,000 flights canceled over several days.
American, for its part, has touted technical and operational improvements made in recent years which, executives say, help the airline keep flights running smoothly when problems arise. Over the Thanksgiving travel period, the carrier enjoyed a strong performance, including four days when it did not cancel a single flight across its entire mainline network.
What to do if you’re flying American on Christmas Eve
Here’s what you can do if you’re traveling with American on Tuesday:
Keep an eye on your app
Now that American’s systems appear to be back online, keep a close eye on the carrier’s mobile app. With residual delays expected, there’s certainly a chance your flight could be affected.
In some cases, the airline may offer you rebooking options with just a few taps, allowing you to avoid waiting in a long line or on hold for an extended period of time.
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Remember the refund rules
Under U.S. Department of Transportation policy, airlines are entitled to give travelers a full cash refund for the unflown portion of their trip if there’s a flight cancellation or significant delay and the customer chooses not to travel.
So, if you encounter a major flight disruption Tuesday and decide you don’t want to travel anymore, the carrier would owe you a refund (but wouldn’t owe you one if you accept rebooking accommodations).
You could be owed meals, hotel, ground transportation
If you find yourself stranded for a long period of time, American will likely be expected to make good on promises it spells out on the DOT’s FlightRights.gov dashboard for meals, plus hotel and ground transportation costs for travelers affected by overnight delays.
While these guarantees don’t apply in the case of weather disruptions or other factors outside the airline’s control, the DOT typically considers technical outages with airline software to be “controllable” disruptions — in other words, the airline’s responsibility.
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This is a developing story. Check back for frequent updates.
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