Air Travel

American Airlines resumes flights after earlier grounding flights on Christmas Eve

Tuesday is expected to be one of the busiest travel days of the holiday season, with millions taking to the skies.

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American Airlines resumed operations just about 8 a.m. ET Tuesday after earlier grounding all flights across the country due to a technical issue, impacting travelers on one of the busiest travel days of the year.

The exact nature of the technical problem and what systems it may have impacted was not immediately disclosed, but the airline said it impacted "the technology issue impacted systems needed to release flights."

"A vendor technology issue briefly affected flights this morning," the company said in a statement after flights had resumed.

"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."

An advisory issued by the Federal Aviation Administration showed the company issued a request for a full ground stop of its flights just before 7 a.m. ET. The stop lasted for one hour, according to the FAA records.

The Transportation Security Administration expects to screen 40 million passengers over the holidays and through January 2, according to The Associated Press.

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