Christmas Eve travel at DFW Airport starts with bad weather, American Airlines ground stop
Bad weather wasn’t the only concern for Texans and their holiday travels Tuesday morning.
The Federal Aviation Administration said American Airlines requested a ground stop for all of its flights for one hour early Tuesday, Dec. 24 due to a “vendor technological issue.” On top of that, thunderstorms are expected to roll in before noon. The Fort Worth area is already under a flash flood warning until 11:30 a.m.
The airline groundings combined with the bad weather was horrible timing for the millions of travelers expected to fly over the next couple of days. The Transportation Security Administration said it expects to screen nearly 40 million passengers traveling for the holidays through Jan. 2. Many holiday flights are already sold out, making delays and cancellations even more complicated.
As of 11 a.m. Tuesday, there are currently 532 delays and eight flight cancellations so far at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, according to FlightAware.
What is a ground stop?
The FAA said American Airlines requested a ground stop at 7 a.m. ET.
“A Ground Stop (GS) is a traffic management initiative (TMI) requiring aircraft that meet specific criteria to remain on the ground at their origination airport,” according to the National Business Aviation Society. “Ground stops are implemented when air traffic control is unable to safely accommodate additional aircraft in the system.”
Ground stops are most frequently used for weather events, equipment outages, catastrophic events, aircraft accidents, construction or security incidents.
Airline operations resumed schedule an hour later at 8 a.m.
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What’s the weather in Fort Worth?
The Fort Worth National Weather Service forecast calls for scattered thunderstorms from noon until before midnight on Dec. 24. Threats of damaging winds and hail are present.
Christmas Day, Wednesday, Dec. 25, is predicted to have no rain or storms, with a forecast of clouds and a high of 62.
An 80 percent chance of thunderstorms returns on Dec. 26, with a high of 69.
Continue to monitor the forecast and stay up to date with NWS alerts.