Nationwide Ground Stop for American Airlines

‍DALLAS – American Airlines (AA) temporarily grounded all flights across the United States following a technical issue, prompting the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to issue a nationwide ground stop.

At first, the FAA alert indicated that the ground stop applies immediately to all AA mainline and subsidiary flights, including Envoy Air (MQ), Piedmont Airlines (PT), and PSA Airlines (OH). The measure was enacted at the request of the airline to address the ongoing issue.

FAA Notice Details:

Event Time: December 24, 11:49 AM to 1:00 PM EST
Destination Airports Impacted: All
Departure Facilities Included: All
Probability of Extension: Medium
Impacting Condition: Company Request
Comments: Nationwide ground stop for American Airlines mainline and subsidiaries

Passengers across the country reported significant delays as the airline works to resolve the issue. As per the FAA notice, the ground stop was scheduled to remain in effect until at least 1:00 PM EST.

Initial Update from American

American Airlines posted on X (formerly Twitter) at 6:37 AM EST: "We're currently experiencing a technical issue with all American Airlines flights. Your safety is our utmost priority, once this is rectified, we'll have you safely on your way to your destination."

The post quickly gained traction, receiving over 24.3K views within the hour.

Customers took to social media to express their concerns. One user, Dr. Michelle Sencibaugh, asked, "How long of a timeframe are we talking about?" AA responded, "Our team is currently working to get this done. An estimated timeframe has not been provided, but they're trying to fix it in the shortest possible time."

Latest Update: Ground Stop Lifted

As per a tweet by Ryan Ewing, an announcement from the ORD Admirals Club stated "The system is “back up.” Agent directed passengers to go to gates."

At around 8 AM EST, an ATCSCC advisory indicated that the nationwide ground stop for AA and its subsidiaries was canceled. The cancellation applies to all destination airports and facilities.

According to Cirium, AA has 3,320 domestic and 581 international flights scheduled today, with a total of 504,767 seats available across its network. Approximately 80% of these seats (403,255) are for domestic flights. The busiest origin airports for domestic flights, ranked by seats, are:

Dallas/Fort Worth, TX: 62,867 seats (466 flights)
Charlotte-Douglas, NC: 56,985 seats (467 flights)
Miami, FL: 22,209 seats (143 flights)
Phoenix, AZ: 21,127 seats (154 flights)
Chicago-O'Hare, IL: 20,456 seats (182 flights)
Philadelphia, PA: 15,249 seats (121 flights)
Washington-National, DC: 14,178 seats (148 flights)
Los Angeles, CA: 12,503 seats (80 flights)
Orlando, FL: 6,613 seats (36 flights)
New York-La Guardia, NY: 6,476 seats (54 flights)
Boston, MA: 5,286 seats (40 flights)
Tampa, FL: 4,382 seats (26 flights)
New York-JFK, NY: 4,278 seats (36 flights).

Good for AA how quick they recovered, especially on a holiday, with just 19 are cancelled. That's a very low cancellation rate.

However, as per data from Cirium, only 37% of flights are leaving on time so far today — 93% of all flights are departing within two hours of the scheduled departure time.

On arrivals, a similar story with only 36% of flights arriving on time. A departing flight leaves within 14:59 of its scheduled departure time; an arriving flight arrives within 14:59 of its scheduled arrival time.

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