FORT MYERS, Fla — American Airlines passengers at RSW were relieved Tuesday morning when flights resumed, after the airline briefly grounded all of its flights.
Watch Fox 4's Alex Orenczuk report on American Airlines Christmas Eve grounding:
The airline said an issue with a vendor technology that impacted the systems needed to release flights caused the grounding, and has since been fixed.
The issue was found around 6:30 a.m. and was resolved about an hour later, according to the company.
Some American Airlines passengers heading to the airport during that time, were nervous.
“I just logged into my Facebook and someone was saying something about the grounding and transportation and all flights were delayed," said Tiera Byrd, who was heading to Charlotte, NC. "It kind of got me scared now that its Christmas Eve, so, we’re trying to get home.”
Most American Airlines passengers at RSW, like Byrd, just experienced minor delays.
“Thank God we are loading up and we’re about to go, we had a slight delay not too long, maybe 15 minutes," said Byrd.
The airline stated that a "travel notice has been issued to allow customers additional flexibility."
Update 8:14 am
American Airlines says it has resumed operations and delayed flights are starting to take off at airports across the country. At this point, it has not given any specifics about the "technical issue" that grounded flights Tuesday morning.
An afternoon flight from RSW to Chicago was canceled, and a couple of other American flights to Charlotte are delayed.
Every American flight into RSW scheduled to arrive before 1 pm on Tuesday is delayed from 40 to 90 minutes.
Original Story
American Airlines says all of it's flights were grounded nationwide on Tuesday morning because of a technical issue.
In a statement the airline said, “Our teams are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible, and we apologize to our customers for the inconvenience.”
At this point no other information has been released.
A traveler called the Fox 4 newsroom from the airport in Charlotte, NC. She said she was trying to get home when an announcement was made that every flight had been grounded.
The departure board at Southwest Florida International Airport shows delays for American flights, but no cancellations.
We have a reporter on his way to RSW.
This is a developing story and we will update it as soon as we get new information.
