12 hours ago
American Airlines operations returning to normal after systemwide computer outage
American Airlines suffered a widespread outage with its flight information computer system, authorities with two affected airports told CNN.
A source from one affected airport told CNN the airline had sent messages indicating problems for at least two hours with the system that handles flight bookings, check-in, ticketing and baggage tagging, along with other functions. The source said American sent communications just before 2:45 p.m. ET stating the systems were coming back online and to expect 'slight delays as they work towards normal operations.'
CNN has reached out to American Airlines but has not received a response.
Airport officials at Miami International Airport said they were notified about the problem just after 2 p.m. Friday.
'We have been just notified about that. We're waiting to hear if any sites have been impacted yet,' said Greg Chin, communications director at Miami International Airport.
The full impacts on flights and passengers were not yet clear Friday afternoon.
One passenger in Arizona told CNN he was stuck on an airplane before takeoff. 'The flight was supposed to takeoff at 10:22 (a.m. MT), the app now says 11:30 (a.m. MT), but that's just a place holder. Pilot came on and said that AA's electronic maintenance system is down and they can't input whatever work was done on the plane and then accept it so therefore we're stuck until that system comes back up,' Jason Hass said.
A passenger in Charlotte who was scheduled to leave at 1 p.m., told CNN they were about to take off just before 3 p.m. The passenger, John Noona, told CNN airline officials said the 'main system' had gone down. He added he had been stuck on the ground for nearly two hours.
The Federal Aviation Administration, as well as officials at airports in Chicago and Dallas, referred questions to the airline.
At 2:30 p.m. ET, flight data tracker FlightAware showed 21% of American Airlines flights delayed and 2% canceled. American's wholly-owned subsidiary PSA Airlines had 27% of flights delayed and 11% were canceled Friday.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
CNN's Ed Lavandera, Bill Kirkos and Sarah Dewberry contributed to this report.
