Washington DC, United States

American Airlines on Tuesday (Dec 24) lifted an hour-long ground stop of all its flights during the busy holiday travel period in the US due to an unspecified technical issue.

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The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) briefly issued a nationwide ground stop for all American Airlines flights on the morning of Christmas Eve after the airline reported that a "technical issue" was affecting flights.

"The ground stop has now been lifted," said Bridgett Frey, assistant administrator for communications at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), in a statement.  

The FAA said the ground stop was issued at the request of the airline, on one of the busiest travel days of the year.

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"Our teams are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible, and we apologize to our customers for the inconvenience," the airline said.

However, at around 8 am ET, American Airlines said the ground stop has been lifted and flights were starting to board.

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Social media quickly filled with frustrated travellers expressing concerns about how the delay might affect their holiday plans and family reunions.

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"The issue has been fixed, and flights are now back on schedule," the airline stated. "We apologize for the disruption this morning and are doing everything we can to get passengers to their destinations as swiftly as possible."

The airline also mentioned that it had 3,900 flights scheduled for the day, just over half of the 6,400 flights planned for the previous day.

(With inputs from agencies)