American Airlines had no choice but to briefly ground all flights operated across the United States on Tuesday (US time). According to a nationwide ground stop issued by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the American carrier and its subsidiaries were impacted by the measure just before 6:30 pm ET, the airline said. The order was ultimately lifted for all US airports, except Charlotte Douglas International, less than an hour later.
What happened to American Airlines’ flights?
Addressing the issue in a social media post, the Fort Worth-based airline said, “A technology issue briefly impacted connectivity for some of our systems on Tuesday morning.”
“We put a temporary ground in place while our teams worked to resolve the issue. We apologise to our customers for the inconvenience.” In a subsequent update, the airline confirmed, “Systems are coming back online now, and flights are departing again.”
American Airlines CEO recently sounded the alarm on gas prices
Deemed one of the world’s largest airlines, American Airlines suffered the consequences of a massive IT outage on the heels of its CEO, Robert Isom, sounding the alarm about rising fuel costs amid the US’ ongoing war in Iran.
During the carrier’s Q2 earnings call on July 23, top leadership laid out how surging prices were impacting the airline.
“Since the beginning of July, expected third quarter fuel expense has increased by more than $700 million for the quarter and nearly $1.6 billion for the remainder of the year,” CFO Devon May explained.
Thereafter, CEO Robert Isom added that the airline is expecting almost $6 billion in extra fuel costs for all of 2026 compared to last year. “Even against an expected nearly $6 billion year-over-year fuel headwind, we anticipate full year adjusted earnings to be break-even at the midpoint of our guidance range,” he noted.
In a press release published July 23, the Texas-based airline revealed its second-quarter highlights as follows:
- Record revenue of $16.7 billion, up 16.3% year over year, marking the highest quarterly revenue in company history.
- Strong demand and execution that offset nearly 50% of the over $2.2 billion year-over-year fuel expense increase.
- GAAP net income of $71 million, or $0.11 per diluted share.
- Adjusted net income of $99 million1, or $0.15 per diluted share.
“American delivered year-over-year revenue growth of more than 16% in the second quarter, exceeding our initial expectations and continuing the momentum we’ve built across the business,” said the CEO.
“This performance reflects the strength of our commercial strategy, driven by our four pillars: elevate the customer experience, grow the global network, drive premium revenue and lead in loyalty. Revenue growth was strong across all entities and cabins, with premium, Main Cabin, domestic and international all up meaningfully year over year. These results demonstrate that our revenue performance and efficiency efforts will continue to drive improved results, and I’m excited about the remainder of 2026 and what’s ahead in 2027 and beyond. Thank you to the American Airlines team for their outstanding execution on our commercial and operational objectives during the quarter.”