The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) imposed a nationwide ground stop for all American Airlines flights in the United States on the evening of July 28, 2026, following a major information-technology outage. The ground stop was reported shortly after 7 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT), halting departures nationwide while the airline worked to resolve the issue.
By 8:10 p.m. EDT, the FAA’s Air Traffic Control System Command Center lifted the nationwide ground stop, allowing American Airlines flights to resume departures. Flight tracking data confirmed that flights such as AA100 from New York John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) to London Heathrow
Airport (LHR), which departed at 7:24 p.m., and AA1069 from Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) to Miami International Airport (MIA), which left at 7:47 p.m., took off after the restriction was removed. The FAA defines a ground stop as a traffic-management instruction that temporarily halts departures without affecting flights already airborne.
Although the nationwide stop was lifted, localized ground stops remained in effect at Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT) and Miami International Airport (MIA). The FAA classified both as “Other / Carrier Request,” covering American Airlines mainline and subsidiary operations at CLT and mainline flights at MIA. Additionally, weather-related ground stops
and delay programs were active concurrently in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic region, affecting 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), JFK, and New York LaGuardia Airport (LGA) due to thunderstorms.
American Airlines acknowledged the IT issue in a statement, saying, “A technology issue briefly impacted connectivity for some of our systems on Tuesday evening.” The airline added, “Systems are coming back online now and flights are departing again. We put a temporary ground stop in place while our teams worked to resolve the
issue. We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience.” American’s IT team was actively addressing the problem while departures were paused.
Passengers experienced flight cancellations and delays nationwide on the evening of July 28 due to the ground stop and system disruption. Although departures resumed, flights accumulated in departure queues, and airport operations faced congestion as crews and passengers adjusted to the delays. American Airlines recommended that travelers closely monitor flight status tools and its app, especially those planning to use Charlotte Douglas and Miami airports or airports impacted by the thunderstorms.
American Airlines had not released detailed information regarding
the affected systems, root cause, or the exact duration of the IT outage by the reporting time. The relationship between the localized stops at Charlotte and Miami and the earlier nationwide outage was unclear. No evidence linked this event to a previous nationwide technical disruption that American Airlines experienced on December 24, 2024. There was no confirmation of vendor involvement, cybersecurity incidents, or hardware failures connected to this outage.
