WASHINGTON — American Airlines briefly grounded flights nationwide Tuesday because of a technical problem just as the Christmas travel season kicked into overdrive and winter weather threatened more potential problems for those planning to fly or drive.
Government regulators cleared American flights to get airborne about an hour after the Federal Aviation Administration ordered a national ground stop for the airline. The order, which prevented planes from taking off, was issued at the airline’s request.
The airline said in an email that the problem was caused by an issue with vendor technology that maintains its flight operating system.
Dennis Tajer, a spokesperson for the Allied Pilots Association, a union representing American Airlines pilots, said the airline told pilots at 7 a.m. Eastern time that there was an outage affecting the system known as FOS. It handles different types of airline operations, including dispatch, flight planning, passenger boarding, as well as an airplane’s weight and balance data, he said.
Some components of FOS have gone down in the past, but a systemwide outage is rare, Tajer said.
Hours after the ground stop was lifted, Tajer said the union had not heard about any “chaos out there beyond just the normal heavy travel day.” He said officials were watching for any cascading effects, such as staffing problems.
The flight-tracking site FlightAware reported that 3,267 flights entering or leaving the U.S., or serving domestic destinations, were delayed Tuesday, with 44 flights canceled. It did not show any flights from American Airlines.
Aviation analytics company Cirium said Dallas-Fort Worth and Charlotte, North Carolina, saw the greatest number of delays. Washington, New York, Chicago and Miami experienced considerably fewer delays.
Significant rain and snow was expected in the Pacific Northwest at least into Christmas Day. Showers and thunderstorms were developing in the South. Freezing rain was reported in the Mid-Atlantic region near Baltimore and Washington, and snow was falling in New York.
Because the holiday travel period lasts weeks, airports and airlines typically have smaller peak days than they do during the rush around Thanksgiving, but the grind of one hectic day followed by another takes a toll on flight crews. And any hiccups — a winter storm or a computer outage — can snowball into massive disruptions.
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