The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) temporarily halted all American Airlines departures nationwide on July 28, 2026, following a major outage affecting the carrier’s information technology systems.
The disruption affected American Airlines’ operational infrastructure, prompting the FAA to issue a nationwide ground stop as a safety precaution. The restriction applied only to departures, while aircraft already in the air were allowed to continue to their planned destinations.
The ground stop lasted for less than an hour. Once the airline’s systems began operating again, the FAA lifted the restriction and flights gradually resumed.
Despite the relatively brief outage, operations were significantly disrupted. According to flight-tracking data, more than 1,100 flights were delayed and over 200 were cancelled as the airline worked to restore its schedule.
