The outage cost Delta Air Lines (DAL.N), opens new tab at least $500 million.
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.
"A technical issue is affecting American flights this morning. Our teams are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible, and we apologize to our customers for the inconvenience," American Airlines had said in a statement following the ground stop.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration in a statement referred Reuters to the airline, reiterating that the carrier had reported a technical issue.
American operates thousands of flights per day to more than 350 destinations in more than 60 countries.
Shares of the carrier clawed back lost ground and were marginally down before the bell.
American was responding to comments on X as numerous users posted there, as well as on Bluesky and Facebook.
"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.