The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a nationwide ground stop for American Airlines flights due to an IT outage.
The ground stop took effect at approximately 6:30 p.m. ET and was canceled at 7:18 p.m.
Hundreds of flights were delayed because of the issue.
DEVELOPING: American Airlines flights not in the air were being held for a nationwide ground stop Tuesday evening because of an IT outage, according to an advisory from the Federal Aviation Administration.
Read more: https://t.co/JAMUb4pzRu pic.twitter.com/91NsjfxS7H
— ABC News (@ABC) July 28, 2026
Reuters has more:
“Systems are coming back online now and flights are departing again,” American said in a statement. “We put a temporary ground stop in place while our teams worked to resolve the issue. We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience.”
FlightAware, a flight-tracking site, said American had delayed 1,100 flights, or 30% of flights on Tuesday and canceled 221, or 6% of flights. Flightradar24, another aviation website, said as of 7 p.m. ET there were 130 fewer flights in the air than at the same time last week.
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The ground stop involving American Airlines follows issues on Monday at all three New York City-area airports due to staffing.
An FAA spokesperson said staffing issues and severe weather caused significant disruptions at LaGuardia, Newark, and JFK airports.
A ground stop continues for Newark Airport through 7:30 p.m. LaGuardia and JFK are also under a ground stop through 7 p.m.
Over 1,000 flights to and from the three airports have been cancelled so far.
Here's the latest: https://t.co/06THc3qXnW
— PIX11 News (@PIX11News) July 28, 2026
PIX11 shared further:
Flights heading to all three were delayed well over an hour and are expected to be delayed through the late night, according to the FAA.
Ground stops were lifted after 8 p.m. by the FAA.
The spokesperson did not say why the New York control center was understaffed to begin the week.
FlightAware data shows roughly 500 delayed inbound flights across the three airports as of 4:30 p.m. on Monday. Approximately 80 inbound flights had already been canceled.
Over 300 flights leaving the New York City area were delayed as well, according to FlightAware.
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