American Airlines passengers across the country found themselves stranded Tuesday because of a computer outage, causing all of its flights to be grounded until 5 p.m.
One American flight from the Durango-La Plata County Airport to Dallas was canceled and another was delayed about four hours because of the outage, according to the airline’s website.
About 20 of the passengers who were on the canceled flight were rebooked on the delayed flight, said director Kip Turner. The remaining passengers have been booked on flights leaving today.
Thousands of passengers were stranded at airports and on planes because of the failure of a key computer system.
The airline blamed its computerized reservation system, which is used for much more than booking flights. Airlines use such systems to track passengers and bags, monitor who has boarded a plane and to update flight schedules and gate assignments and file flight plans.
The failure caused cascading delays and cancellations nationwide.
As of mid-afternoon, American and its American Eagle offshoot canceled more than 700 flights and another 765 flights were delayed, according to tracking service FlightAware.
The outage began in midmorning stretched into the afternoon. The systems were fixed by 2:30 p.m., airline spokeswoman Stacey Frantz said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. jdahl@durangoherald.com
