American Air Says Christmas Eve Delays Caused By Tech Glitch

American Airlines Group Inc. said a technical vendor glitch was the cause of a brief groundstop on all US flights on Christmas Eve, one of the busiest days of the holiday travel season. 

The carrier said the groundstop lasted about one hour, but the issue has been resolved and flights have resumed. It blamed an unspecified technology issue that impacted its ability to release flights. 

“We sincerely apologize to our customers for the inconvenience this morning,” the company said Tuesday in a statement. “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 airline didn’t say if it expected any delays or other knock-on effects.

American Air had said earlier it was experiencing technical issues affecting all of its flights, disrupting operations on a day where the Federal Aviation Administration expects to see about 30,000 US flights across all carriers.

Some online postings said that the airline was suffering a software outage preventing it from calculating weight and balance requirements for its flights.

American Airlines shares dropped as much as 5.5% in premarket trading before reversing course. Shares were down less than 1% at 9 a.m. in New York.