Some American Airlines flights stopped for a short time on Friday. A tech problem caused this sudden break. It shut down several of the airline’s key systems. The glitch affected flight plans list and airport tools. Because of this some passengers had to wait. Planes didn’t take off as planned. The airline’s team worked fast to fix the issue. They restarted the systems and checked all. By the afternoon most flights were running again. American Airlines said they were sorry for the delay. They thanked passengers for being patient. This kind of issue doesn’t happen often but it still causes trouble. Tech is important in flying today. Even a small bug can stop many flight.
An airline spokesperson said in a text just before 4:30 p.m. Eastern that the systems were working again. He added that everything was “back to normal.”
Around midday, people in the U.S. began posting online about delays. They said airline workers couldn’t use the tools needed to get flights ready for takeoff. In some posts, travelers mentioned that gate agents couldn’t board passengers. Others said pilots were locked out of their flight plans.
In an official update Friday afternoon, American Airlines confirmed the tech problem. The company explained that the issue was causing some system connections to fail. It also said teams were working on a fix. The airline noted that no flights were canceled because of the outage.
By 4:30 p.m. Eastern, about 28% of American Airlines flights had been delayed. That’s ccording to FlightAware, which tracks air travel. Cirium, a company that studies airline trends, said that number was close to the upper range for normal delays. Even so, major hubs like Charlotte Douglas, Chicago O’Hare, and Dallas Fort Worth showed only small or no delays at all by late afternoon, FlightAware data showed.