The Federal Aviation Administration instituted a nationwide ground stop for all American Airlines flights shortly after 7 p.m. EDT on July 28, 2026, due to a systemwide IT outage affecting the carrier’s operations.
The FAA’s Air Traffic Control System Command Center lifted the nationwide ground stop by 8:10 p.m. EDT the same day. Flight tracking data confirmed American Airlines resumed flights, including departures of flight AA100 from New York John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) to London Heathrow Airport (LHR) at 7:24 p.m. EDT and flight AA1069 from Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) to Miami International Airport (MIA) at 7:47 p.m.
EDT.
Despite the nationwide clearance, localized ground stops remained for American Airlines flights at Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT) covering both mainline and subsidiary carriers, and at Miami International Airport (MIA) for mainline flights only. The FAA categorized these localized restrictions as “Other / Carrier Request.” The backlog at Charlotte, one of American’s principal hubs, caused arrival delays to increase from an average of 24 minutes to 49 minutes, with a 30% to 60% likelihood the local ground stop could be extended.
Simultaneously, weather-related ground stops and delay programs affected numerous Northeast and Mid-Atlantic airports on July 28, 2026. These
included Boston Logan International Airport (BOS), Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR), Philadelphia International Airport (PHL), Baltimore/Washington International Airport (BWI), Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA), New York John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), and New York LaGuardia Airport (LGA), compounding regional airspace congestion.
American Airlines acknowledged the outage through official statements, saying a “technology issue briefly impacted connectivity for some of our systems on Tuesday evening.” The airline confirmed that systems were coming back online and apologized for the inconvenience caused. They further stated that their IT teams were working rapidly to restore operations and connectivity has been fully restored.
The FAA ground stop mechanism applied by the Air Traffic Control System Command Center institutes flight restrictions at departure points to prevent additional departures while maintaining airborne flights unaffected. Ground stops do not recall aircraft already in flight and are coordinated with airport facilities and industry partners to manage traffic flow until resolving the operational issue.
The exact details regarding the cause, duration beyond the ground stop interval, affected systems, and the number of flights disrupted were not publicly disclosed by the time of reporting. The FAA and American Airlines also confirmed that this outage has no known connection to
an unrelated American Airlines technical issue that occurred on December 24, 2024.
Travelers impacted by the IT disruption and residual local ground stops, particularly at Charlotte and Miami airports, should follow updated flight status information due to ongoing delays. Weather-related regional restrictions remain active in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, further affecting schedules.
