American Airlines briefly grounded all flights across the United States on Tuesday morning, resuming service shortly after.
The airline requested the Federal Aviation Administration order a nationwide ground stop for all its flights due to “technical issues.”
While CNN reported that American once again began boarding flights around 8 a.m. EST, the airline responded to a post on social media around 9 a.m. EST stating they don’t have an “exact timeframe” on when all travel will resume as normal.
The delay could potentially cause issues for the record number of travelers expected to be traveling this holiday season.
AAA predicted that more than 119 million people will travel at least 50 miles from home between Dec. 21 and New Year’s Day, which would top the previous holiday-season high set in 2019.
“Travelers should expect the roads, airports and cruise terminals to be more crowded than normal,” said Debbie Haas, vice president of travel for AAA.
Airlines for America also predicted record air travel this season, saying it expects U.S. airlines to carry 54 million passengers during a 19-day holiday period.
Averaging 2.8 million passengers per day, that would represent a 6% increase over last year.
