Ho, ho, oh no. American Airlines gave travelers a lump of coal Tuesday morning, grounding all U.S. flights for an hour on Tuesday due to a mysterious "technical issue." Thousands of passengers were briefly stranded, and while the problem was resolved quickly, it was enough to send holiday travel plans, and tempers, into a tailspin.
The outage marks the latest tech hiccup to rattle the airline industry. Earlier this year, a global Microsoft Azure outage and CrowdStrike software glitch cost Delta a cool $500 million. And let’s not forget Southwest’s 2021 holiday fiasco, which stranded 2 million passengers, triggered 16,900 flight cancellations, and ended with a record $140 million penalty.
American’s statement was appropriately apologetic, promising swift resolution, but it’s little comfort to travelers still haunted by visions of missed connections and gift-less Christmas mornings. With over 350 destinations in 60 countries, the ripple effects of even a brief pause are massive.
The airline scrambled to address complaints on social platforms like X, Bluesky, and Facebook, as irate travelers vented their frustration. Meanwhile, American’s stock clawed back some early premarket losses and opened marginally down at Christmas Eve’s opening bell.
Holiday travel is chaotic enough without tech failures stealing the show. While this one didn’t spiral into a full-blown disaster, it’s a sobering reminder of how fragile airline systems are, especially during the most wonderful (and crowded) time of the year.
To the thousands of passengers who dodged a Southwest-style nightmare this time: Merry Christmas Eve. And to American Airlines, maybe put “tech upgrades” at the top of your New Year’s resolution list.