American Airlines Cancels 1,400-Plus Saturday Flights, Gives Commuting Crews Confirmed Seats

DALLAS/FORT WORTH, Nov. 15, 2026 — American Airlines took the largest hit in raw numbers from Friday’s nationwide FAA ground stop. FlightAware data cited by Men’s Journal show American canceled 1,429 flights on Saturday, Nov. 14 — about 42% of its schedule — and another 368 (about 10%) as of 8:04 a.m. ET Sunday. To get the operation back, the airline moved commuting pilots and flight attendants into confirmed seats and added extra flights.

What happened

The FAA halted departures nationwide on the afternoon of Friday, Nov. 13, after a communications failure hit multiple air route traffic control centers. The stop began at about 3:53 p.m. ET and was lifted at about 8:15 p.m. ET. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the outage started during contractor L3Harris’s work moving lines from copper to fiber at a remote FAA site; officials said there was no evidence of a cyberattack. FAA Administrator Bedford said many crews and aircraft ended Friday out of position, which drove the weekend cancellations, and that airlines expect full schedules again by the close of business Sunday.

American said it was concentrating on repositioning aircraft and crews to rebuild its network, according to The Bulkhead Seat. ABC News reported that the airline:

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• added about 1,750 seats with extra flights on Saturday;
• put fare caps on domestic and short international flights;
• let pilots and flight attendants commuting to their bases book confirmed seats rather than ride standby, and paid crews premium pay on certain flights.

Per CNN, as relayed by Yahoo News, a crew memo also told commuters to wait for updated schedules before booking a commute.

The waiver

• Covers travel through 21 airports on the airline’s list for original travel Nov. 13–18, on tickets issued by Nov. 12 (per Newsweek, Nov. 15).
• One-time change with no fee; new travel must be completed by Nov. 21 between the same cities, and changes must be booked by Nov. 18.
• Customers can instead cancel and request a refund under the waiver.

Also this week: strategy

Separately, Chief Commercial Officer Nat Pieper told the Skift Aviation Forum in New York (reported Nov. 14 by AirlineGeeks and View from the Wing) that American is leaning harder into local customers in its big cities, saying the approach has produced “material margin improvement” at LaGuardia. He said the $1.6 billion modernization of LAX Terminals 4 and 5 is expected to be ready in late 2028.

What it means for non-revs

• Confirmed seats for commuting crews take seats off the standby list, on top of thousands of displaced customers. Expect very little standby room on American through at least Sunday night.
• The waiver lets affected customers rebook for travel as late as Nov. 21, so Monday through Friday flights will carry extra re-accommodated passengers. Pleasure trips are best pushed past Nov. 21 if you can.
• With Thanksgiving week right behind, there may be no real breather. If you must travel, list on early-morning departures and have a backup on another carrier.
• If you commute to work on American, follow your crew-scheduling notices; the memo said to wait for updated schedules before booking a commute.

Sources

• Men’s Journal, “FAA Outage Cancellations Top 15,000 as JetBlue Cuts More Than a Quarter of Its Sunday Flights” — https://www.mensjournal.com/news/faa-ground-stop-sunday-cancellations-crowdstrike
• Good Morning America / ABC News, “FAA ground stop live updates: ‘Zero evidence of anything nefarious,’ FAA head says” — https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/news/live-updates/faa-ground-stop-live-updates-hundreds-flights-canceled-138125140
• Yahoo News, “FAA ground stop latest updates: Saturday cancellations top 6,000; controllers’ union chief says communications with some planes were disrupted; Duffy blames L3Harris” — https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/live/faa-ground-stop-latest-updates-duffy-blames-contractor-l3harris-thousands-more-flights-canceled-saturday-no-sign-of-cyberattack-161329174.html
• The Bulkhead Seat, “Thousands of Flights Canceled as Airlines Struggle to Recover From FAA Ground Stop” — https://thebulkheadseat.com/thousands-of-flights-canceled-as-airlines-struggle-to-recover-from-faa-ground-stop/
• Newsweek, “FAA Ground Stop: Latest Airline Advice As More Than 1,000 Flights Canceled” — https://www.newsweek.com/faa-ground-stop-flight-cancellations-update-airline-advice-12717253
• AirlineGeeks, “American CCO Lays Out Vision For Becoming ‘Premium Global Airline’” — https://airlinegeeks.com/2026/11/14/american-cco-lays-out-vision-for-reaching-premium-global-status/
• View from the Wing, “American Airlines Reverses Its Original New York Strategy—Wants Local Customers Back In Major Cities” — https://viewfromthewing.com/american-airlines-reverses-its-original-new-york-strategy-wants-local-customers-back-in-major-cities/