SEATAC, Wash. — American Airlines stop flights heading to Dallas, Chicago, and Miami due to a computer-systems problem on Thursday morning.
Connectivity issues were resolved around 11:15 a.m. The issue temporarily grounded outbound American Airlines flights at SeaTac Airport.
We apologize for the inconvenience and are working to get our customers on their way as soon as possibe," the airline wrote to KIRO 7 News in a statement.
Airline spokesman Casey Norton said Thursday that the outage began around 9 a.m. Seattle time. Norton says the airline doesn't know the cause of the problem but is working to fix it.
The Federal Aviation Administration says American planes destined for Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, O'Hare Airport in Chicago and Miami International Airport were held on the ground.
American flies nonstop from SeaTac to DFW/ORD/MIA. According to FAA's website, AA1489 Seattle to DFW left the gate at 10:07 a.m. but did not take off until after 11 a.m. AA1628 to Chicago O’Hare was suppose to leave at 10:50 a.m. but did not leave the gate on time.
AA flight 1402 from SeaTac to DFW left on time at 11:52 p.m.
Several passengers took to Twitter to tell American Airlines they were having issues with flights, with one user saying she was unable to check in for her flight to Chicago.
The outage comes at an awkward time for American Airline Group Inc., the world's biggest airline. In less than a month, the company plans to complete combining the reservations systems of American and its US Airways subsidiary and retiring the US Airways brand.
Combining technology systems is a difficult feat that has tripped up other airlines, notably leading to several outages at United Airlines after it merged with Continental Airlines in 2010. United suffered two major outages this summer.
American has made meticulous plans to avoid a similar fate. Among other moves, it will reduce flights to lighten the load on its network while it combines the two reservations systems.
KIRO
