IT Woes Ground American Airlines Flights

An outage in a key reservations system has grounded all flights at American Airlines this afternoon, as the airline instituted a system-wide ground delay until 7 p.m. Eastern time. The technology problems, which left passengers and gate agents unable to manage bookings or print boarding passes, caused backups at airports in many areas of the country.

“American’s network system is experiencing intermittent outages," the airline said. "At this time, we are holding all flights on the ground until later this afternoon, when we will provide another update. We are working to resolve this issue as quickly as we can, and we apologize to our customers for this inconvenience ... We’re currently unable to modify today’s reservations. However, when able, we’ll offer refunds or update travel at no charge.

"The issue is with our ability to access our reservation system," American said on Twitter, correcting an earlier tweet that attributed the downtime to problems with the Sabre reservations network. Sabre, which also serves other airlines, said "All Sabre systems are up and running; no issues here."

UPDATE: As of 4:30 p.m. Eastern, American said its systems outage was resolved, but impacts on operations would continue to be felt. "Our systems have been fully restored, however we expect continued flight delays and cancellations throughout the remainder of the day." In a statement on its Facebook page, the airline offered several options for travelers with flights today.

The airline added an unusual comment, apparently to address speculation: "It is important to note we see no evidence that today’s technical outage is related to the tragic events in Boston."

The outage was causing significant delays at Dallas-Forth Worth airport, a major hub for American. "At DFW, there are some aircraft on the ramps awaiting departure, as well as arrivals flights awaiting gate space," airport spokesperson Sarah McDaniel told the Dallas News. "Aircraft have also returned to the gate and deplaned passengers."

The outage is the latest in a series of incidents in which problems with airline reservations systems have snarled air traffic and inconvenienced passengers. Here's a recap: