American Airlines Flights Resume After Tech Glitch

American Airlines saw flight delays but avoided a deeper Christmas Eve meltdown after a vendor technology issue briefly halted its operations Tuesday morning.

- ALISON SIDER

American resumed flights after an hour-long ground stop was lifted shortly before 8 a.m. ET. But the setback continued to ripple throughout the day, with about 1,000 mainline American flights— over 40% of its schedule—delayed as of Tuesday afternoon, according to FlightAware. Only 13 of American’s mainline flights had been canceled, however.

About one-third of flights at Envoy, American’s regional airline subsidiary, were also delayed and 17 were canceled. The airline said a network hardware issue affected systems operated by DXC Technology, a vendor that maintains American’s flight operating system. That had an impact on American’s ability to coordinate and dispatch flights.