Austin airport experiences flight delays due to American Airlines technical issues

AUSTIN, Texas - Millions of Americans are on the move this holiday travel week, hitting the roads and taking to the skies. But some are encountering some unexpected turbulence following a brief disruption on American Airlines on Tuesday morning.

Amid the hustle and bustle of holiday travel, American Airlines reported a technical issue with one of its vendors, prompting a nationwide ground stop for about an hour on Christmas Eve morning.

"I actually got a text from my sister because she knew we were traveling, and she wanted to see if we were traveling with American or not," said one ABIA traveler. 

One American Airlines employee told FOX 7 Austin that during the ground stop, the airline was unable to scan any bags or tickets, causing delays as a result.

"I got delayed about an hour today, said one ABIA traveler. 

"My flight got delayed about 15 minutes. I'm just hoping that it won’t be more than 15 minutes for me," said another ABIA traveler. 

Those flying out of Dallas Fort Worth International Airport and Love Field also experienced delays and, in some cases, cancelations.

"They were already giving us options to cancel and get a refund before they told us it was delayed," says Brian Kenney, flying to Illinois.

Inbound flights at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport were delayed by nearly 3 hours and 30 minutes, with severe weather adding to the wait time.

"It’s just put a damper on Christmas, literally and figuratively speaking," says Lori Mulkey, waiting for her daughter.

There were a total of 790 flight delays at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, 394 were from American Airlines.

There were a total of 77 cancelations and 44 were from American Airlines. The data was reported around 6 p.m. on Tuesday.

During the ground stop at ABIA, the airline was unable to scan any bags or tickets, causing delays as a result.

The Fort Worth-based airline requested the ground stop from the Federal Aviation Administration due to the issue but has not provided any other information. And it couldn't come at a worse time.

AAA reported a record travel year nationwide. According to Flightaware, about two dozen flights had already been delayed as of Tuesday morning. 

"It just creates terrible inconvenience and anguish and frustration," said Congressman Lloyd Doggett. 

Despite Tuesday morning's delays, Congressman Lloyd Doggett says his main concern for fliers out of ABIA is its margin of safety, due to a shortage of air traffic controllers.  

"We have less than half of the number of air traffic controllers that the FAA has recommended for our airport. I've been trying for over a year to get them to improve our situation there, to no avail. So far, over the last couple of years, we've had six near-misses of planes," said Congressman Doggett. 

He says Austin is in the top five airports in the country for a shortage of air traffic controllers. He added that issue could also contribute to delays for passengers traveling for the holidays.

"This travel season, there remains the danger of great inconvenience. When the FAA places these ground stops in place. That just really means they don't have enough personnel out as the tower to allow for a safe landing. And so they delay flights coming in sometimes for as much as a couple of hours," said Congressman Doggett. 

The FAA previously told FOX 7 that it has met its hiring goal the past two years.

The FAA also said it's accelerating its hiring process by moving to a year-round hiring track for experienced controllers, providing programs that will allow for immediate facility training upon graduation, quicker training processes, and outreach to high school students.

American Airlines shared a statement apologizing saying it's since resolved the vendor technology issue that caused the delay at the airport.