Delta resumes flights after technology issue

Delta Air Lines Inc. said it has restored its systems, allowing U.S. flights to resume after an hour-long technology issue forced the carrier to ground domestic flights across the nation.

“Delta teams have restored all IT systems after a technology issue briefly affected some of our systems this evening,” the airline said in a statement Tuesday. “All groundstops have been lifted.”

The halt followed breakdowns in the past two years that have forced Delta to shut its operations during heavy travel periods. In January last year, a 2¹/₂-hour computer breakdown grounded domestic flights and left passengers stranded across the U.S. Delta’s worldwide computer systems failed in August 2016, when the carrier scrapped about 2,000 flights.

The airline said in a statement earlier Tuesday that it issued a groundstop to bring systems back up as soon as possible. There were no disruptions or safety issues with any flight that was in the air, the carrier said.

Ground stops, as the Federal Aviation Administration calls them, are relatively common reactions to thunderstorms and other disruptions in the U.S. aviation system. They are typically short-lived and narrowly drawn, such as halting departures to a congested airport for an hour or two.

The situation delayed some flights at Detroit Metro Airport, representatives said.