Some American Airlines flights were temporarily grounded on Friday after a technology outage took a number of the airline’s systems offline.
A spokesman for the airline confirmed in a text message just before 4:30 p.m. Eastern time that the outage had been resolved and systems were “all back to normal.”
Passengers across the United States began posting on social media shortly after noon that their flights had been delayed because airline staff were unable to use computer systems needed to complete predeparture tasks. According to the posts, problems included gate agents being unable to board passengers and pilots being unable to gain access to flight plans.
In a statement on Friday afternoon, American Airlines acknowledged that “a technology issue is affecting connectivity for some of our systems,” and said it was working to resolve the issue. No flights were canceled as a result of the outage, the statement said.
About 28 percent of American Airlines flights were delayed as of 4:30 p.m. Eastern on Friday, according to FlightAware, a flight tracking platform. That number is near the high end of the normal range of delays, according to Cirium, an aviation analytics company. Charlotte Douglas International, Chicago O’Hare and Dallas Fort Worth International, the airline’s major hubs, were reporting minor or no delays as of 4:30 p.m. Friday, according to FlightAware.
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Gabe Castro-Root is a travel reporter and a member of the 2025-26 Times Fellowship class, a program for journalists early in their careers.
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