American adds more flights to rescue stranded passengers
American Airlines had to add extra flights yesterday to help accommodate the thousands of passengers stranded by a computer shut-down.
American, the third largest carrier in the US, cancelled 670 flights on Tuesday and delayed more than 1,000 more after it lost connections with its internal computer systems.
CEO Tom Horton apologised on the airline’s website, saying that a software issue had impacted both the primary and back-up systems.
The airline apologised for originally blaming the problem on Sabre Holdings Corp, the booking system shared by travel agencies and travel providers which was developed when it was a subsidiary of American Airlines. Sabre insisted it played no part in the problem.
American said it would allow affected passengers to change reservations at no charge and provide full refunds to those who could not change.
By Cheryl Rosen
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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