American Airlines technical issue sparks travel chaos on Christmas Eve as flights heavily delayed after being grounded

It’s the glitch that stole Christmas.

American Airlines threw holiday travel into chaos on Christmas Eve after temporarily grounding all flights over technical problems. 

The airline warned travelers just after 6:30 a.m. that it was “experiencing a technical issue with all American flights,” without elaborating. American later blamed a “vendor technology issue” for the problem.

Just before 8 a.m., the Federal Aviation Administration announced that the ground stop had been lifted.

“That issue has been resolved and flights have resumed. We sincerely apologize to our customers for the inconvenience this morning,” American Airlines said. “It’s all hands on deck as our team is working diligently to get customers where they need to go as quickly as possible.”

Before that, the company had been replying to distressed travelers raising their plight on social media.

“Our team is currently working to rectify this. Your continued patience is appreciated,” the airline told frustrated fliers on social media. 

Answering another concern from a stranded flyer, the airline wrote, “An estimated timeframe has not been provided, but they’re trying to fix it in the shortest time possible.”

In a video shared to social media, an agent at Fort Lauderdale airport in Florida can be heard telling travelers “our system is down,” and holding passengers at the gate. 

It was not immediately clear how many flights were impacted by the grounding.

However, FlightAware’s misery map showed that more than 700 flights have been delayed across the US, with Charlotte Douglas, Dallas-Fort Worth, Miami and Washington National airports — all American hubs — the hardest hit.

The technical issue couldn’t have hit at a worse time, as some 40 million passengers are expected to travel through an airport over the holidays until Jan. 2, according to the Transportation Security Administration.

The airline has thousands of flights each day to over 350 destinations in over 60 countries.

With Post wires.