American Airlines threw holiday travel into chaos on Christmas Eve after temporarily grounding all flights over technical problems.
The airline warned travelers just after 6:30 a.m. that it was “experiencing a technical issue with all American flights,” without elaborating. American later blamed a “vendor technology issue” for the problem.
It was not immediately clear how many travelers were impacted. But at one point, FlightAware’s misery map showed more than 700 flights delayed across the US, with Charlotte Douglas, Dallas-Fort Worth, Miami and Washington National airports — all major hubs — the hardest hit.
One video showed an agent at Fort Lauderdale airport in Florida holding passengers at the gate while telling them “our system is down.”
Travelers were also left stranded at LaGuardia Airport early Tuesday as the entire American Airline fleet appeared to remain stagnant with snow piling up on top of the planes around 9 a.m.
Jackie Winter, a retired NYPD officer and current Long Island school teacher, expressed concern that her flight to Sarasota, Florida, would be one of those failing to reach its destination on time.
“Look their planes are not even being de-iced and Continental is flying around around them and heading for the runways! No American Airlines flights are even taking off! On time? I’ll bet!” Winter said.
About 40 minutes later, the company began de-icing the aircraft, videos showed.
The technical issue couldn’t have hit at a worse time, as some 40 million passengers are expected to travel through an airport over the holidays until Jan. 2, according to the Transportation Security Administration.
The airline has thousands of flights each day to over 350 destinations in over 60 countries.
With Post wires.
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