AA Operations 'Back to Normal' After Systemwide 'Glitch'

The airline said it's "back to normal" one day after a systemwide shutdown.

ByABC News
April 17, 2013, 9:36 AM

April 17, 2013— -- One day after an American Airlines network "glitch" canceled nearly 1,000 flights and forced a nationwide shutdown of the airline for several hours, it hopes for a smooth day for travelers today.

The airline told ABC News that operations were back to normal. "We have canceled approximately 100 flights today due to weather in Chicago and to help with crew and aircraft repositioning," airline spokeswoman Mary Frances Fagan said. As of 10 a.m. Wednesday, flight tracking website FlightAware showed about 100 cancellations on American and American Eagle.

American Airlines Chairman and CEO Tom Horton posted a video message on Facebook late Tuesday apologizing to customers for the flight disruptions and inconvenience. Horton said that despite "redundancies in our systems," a software problem hit not only the primary but backup system too.

American got passengers booked on other airlines, paying for any fare differences. It also waived fees for those with flexible travel plans. Travelers who opted not to travel will be given refunds.

The American Airlines Twitter account was still inundated with unhappy travelers Wednesday morning as the airline deals with the backlog of customers displaced by Tuesday's outage. "We have been busy and are doing our best to get everyone on their way as soon as possible," the airline tweeted in response to several passenger complaints.