The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a nationwide ground stop for all American Airlines flights shortly after 7 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) on Tuesday, July 28, 2026, due to a systemwide information-technology (IT) outage affecting the airline’s operational systems. This halt applied to American Airlines and its affiliates, preventing departures until the disruption was addressed.
The FAA lifted the nationwide ground stop by 8:10 p.m. EDT that same evening, allowing American Airlines flights to gradually resume departures. Flight tracking data confirmed several post-7 p.m. departures, including flight AA100 from New York John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) to London
Heathrow Airport (LHR) at 7:24 p.m., and flight AA1069 departing Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) to Miami International Airport (MIA) at 7:47 p.m.
Localized Ground Stops Continue at Charlotte and Miami
Despite lifting the nationwide order, two localized ground stops remained in effect as of 8:10 p.m. EDT. One stop covered all American Airlines operations, including mainline and subsidiary flights, at Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT), while a narrower stop applied to American mainline flights at Miami International Airport (MIA). The FAA categorized both localized ground stops as “Other / Carrier Request.”
Arriving flights to Charlotte experienced increased ground delays, with average arrival delays rising from 24 minutes to
49 minutes. The localized ground stop at Charlotte may extend beyond its scheduled end time, with a 30% to 60% chance of continuation according to FAA information.
American Airlines Restores Connectivity and Apologizes
American Airlines officially stated that a technology issue briefly disrupted connectivity for some of its systems during the evening of July 28. The airline reported that connectivity has been fully restored and apologized to customers for the inconvenience caused by the outage and associated ground stops. It implemented the temporary ground stop while its IT teams worked to resolve the problem.
Passenger Impact and Concurrent Weather-Related Delays
Passengers faced flight cancellations, departure delays, and disrupted connections during the ground
stop and residual delays, particularly at American Airlines hubs in Charlotte and Miami. Concurrent weather-related ground stops and delay programs affected several airports in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions during the same evening, including 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 LaGuardia Airport (LGA), and New York JFK.
Outage Details and FAA Ground Stop Procedures
American Airlines did not disclose which specific IT systems were affected, nor the cause or duration of the outage, and has not published disruption metrics. The FAA ground stop orders halted departures but
did not apply to aircraft already airborne. These stops are traffic-management measures to prevent new flights from entering the system during operational disruptions.
This IT outage is unrelated to a separate brief nationwide technical interruption American Airlines experienced on December 24, 2024. There is no evidence linking either event to cybersecurity incidents, third-party vendor failures, or hardware problems. The FAA classified the localized ground stops in Charlotte and Miami as “Other / Carrier Request,” without indicating if they directly resulted from the IT outage or other operational issues.
