American Airlines grounded on Tuesday all its flights in the U.S. due to an unspecified technical issue, according to several U.S. media reports citing the company and a notice on the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) website.
The reported halt coincided with the start of the busy holiday period when millions of Americans travel across the country.
The company has not said why it was stopping all flights. Numerous passengers were posting on social media that their flights had been stuck on the runway at various airports and were now being sent back to the gate.
Shares of the carrier were down 3.8% before the bell. A notice on the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration website merely said the company had requested a nationwide groundstop, without giving a reason.
As of 7:30 a.m. ET, American had not made a formal statement on social media and was only responding to comments on X as numerous users posted there, as well as on Bluesky and Facebook.
"We're currently experiencing a technical issue with all American Airlines flights. Your safety is our utmost priority, once this is rectified, we'll have you safely on your way to your destination," a recent post shared by the airline on X read.
"Our team is currently working to get this done. An estimated timeframe has not been provided, but they're trying to fix it in the shortest possible time," it added, responding to a question from a stranded flyer.
"Hey, @AmericanAir just tell us whether we should go home or not. Please don't make us wait in the airport for hours," wrote one user.
American operates thousands of flights per day to more than 350 destinations in more than 60 countries.
The grounding comes months after airlines were hit by a global tech outage tied to Microsoft's Azure cloud platform and a software issue at cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike.
The U.S. FAA was not immediately available for comment to Reuters.
Two years ago, Southwest Airlines experienced a meltdown with its systems during the holidays that led to 16,900 flight cancellations and stranded 2 million passengers. It was eventually fined $140 million in the largest-ever civil penalty for a travel disruption.
