O'Hare: Delays possible following American Airlines' ‘technical issue,' ground stop

The Chicago Department of Aviation said passengers departing from Chicago's O'Hare International Airport on Christmas Eve may experience delays after an American Airlines issued a nationwide, hour-long ground stop Tuesday morning because of a "technical issue."

American Airlines issued the ground stop via the Federal Aviation Administration and the air just before 6:30 a.m. CT. It lasted approximately one hour.

"A technical issue is affecting American flights this morning," American Airlines initially said. "Our teams are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible, and we apologize to our customers for the inconvenience."

The airline later released a statement later clarifying the disruption.

"A vendor technology issue briefly affected flights this morning," the statement said. "That issue has been resolved and flights have resumed. We sincerely apologize to our customers for the inconvenience this morning. It’s all hands on deck as our team is working diligently to get customers where they need to go as quickly as possible."

According to the airline, the "technology impacted systems to release flights." The airline encouraged customers to find their latest flight information on the American Airlines mobile app or website.

As of 8:15 a.m. Tuesday, delays at O'Hare averaged 17 minutes, the website flychicago.com reported, with a total of 225 flights delayed over the past 24 hours.

At Midway International Airport, six flights were delayed, the site showed.

When was the American Airlines ground stop issued?

The ground stop was issued by the Federal Aviation Administration just before 6:30 a.m. CT Tuesday.

An advisory issued by the Federal Aviation Administration showed the company issued a request for a full ground stop of its flights.

In social media replies to frustrated travelers, the airline said: “Our team is currently working to rectify this. Your continued patience is appreciated.”

The ground stop, according to the time stamps on the FAA’s orders, lasted exactly one hour.

According to NBC News, American flights had begun to board shortly approximately an hour later, with the airline telling NBC News it was seeing improvement.

Why did American Airlines issue a ground stop?

The airline released a statement just before 8 a.m. CT saying a "vendor technology issue" led to the grounding.

In a report from NBC News, social media users delayed at their gates had reported issues with having their boarding passes scanned. 

Social media users reported being instructed to deplane at airports across the country, including Chicago O'Hare International Airport.

In December 2022, Southwest Airlines stranded 2 million travelers, and Delta Air Lines suffered a smaller but significant meltdown after a worldwide technology outage in July caused by a faulty software update from cybersecurity company CrowdStrike.

Many flights during the holidays are sold out, which makes cancellations even more disruptive than during slower periods. Even with just a brief outage, the cancellations have a cascading effect that can take days to clear up.

Delays, cancellations at Chicago airports

The grounding occurred with millions of travelers expected to fly over the next 10 days.

As of 8:30 a.m., CT Tuesday, O'Hare reported one cancelation and average delays of 17 minutes, the website flychicago.com said. No cancelations were reported at Midway Airport, the site showed.

Still, delays were stacking up at O'Hare. The flychicago.com website reported more than 230 delays over the past 24 hours.

More than 3 million passengers are expected to travel through Chicago's O'Hare and Midway International Airports through Jan. 2, the Chicago Department of Aviation said. The CDA projects Sunday, Dec. 29 to be the busiest day at Midway, when more than 51,000 people will pass through the airport.

Nationally, the Transportation Security Administration expects to screen 40 million passengers over the holidays and through January 2.