(Image source from: REUTERS)

American Airlines suspended all U.S. flights for an hour on Tuesday due to an unspecified technical problem, according to a post on the Federal Aviation Administration's website. The standoff has put thousands of people's holiday plans in jeopardy ahead of the Christmas rush. “They flew to the United States this morning due to a technical fault. Our teams are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible, and we apologize to our customers for the inconvenience," the company said in a statement. American Airlines operates thousands of flights daily to more than 350 destinations in more than 60 countries. Shares in the airline lost and were trading slightly lower before the hour. The US Federal Aviation Administration sent a statement to Reuters on the airline, reiterating that the airline had reported a technical problem.

American Airlines responded to comments about X that many users posted there, as well as on Bluesky and Facebook. “Hey @AmericanAir tell us if we should go home or not. Please don't make us wait for hours at the airport,” one user wrote. The shutdown comes months after airlines were hit by a global technology outage involving Microsoft's Azure cloud platform and a software bug by cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike. Two years ago, Southwest Airlines suffered a system outage during the holidays that resulted in 16,900 flight cancellations and the loss of 2 million passengers. The $140 million fine was the largest civil penalty ever imposed for travel disruption.