American Airlines Is Now Using AI to Hold Planes for You

American Airlines is turning to artificial intelligence not just to modernize travel — but to make it feel a little more human. In its latest tech overhaul, the airline is using AI to predict if passengers might miss their connecting flights and, in some cases, hold the plane to wait for them. The move is part of a wider digital transformation that includes a redesigned app, smarter rebooking tools, and a revamped tech stack aimed at boosting performance, resilience, and customer satisfaction.

Key Points:

Predictive AI at Work: American Airlines uses AI to forecast when travelers are likely to miss connections — and sometimes delays planes to help them make it.
Smarter Self-Service: Generative AI has been embedded into the airline’s chatbot, now capable of assisting with rebookings during weather disruptions and offering real-time travel updates.
Redesigned App: The new mobile app provides a modern, intuitive interface with enhanced features like live updates for iPhone and Apple Watch users.
Operational Resilience: AI is also used internally to help the airline recover quickly from disruptions and identify needed process changes.
Engineering Excellence: American has increased its tech budget by 20% and is modernizing legacy systems to support real-time analysis and boost developer productivity.
Customer Focus: New hardware at airports helps cut check-in time to just minutes, while AI-driven features aim to remove friction from every step of the travel journey.

Key Quotes:

“We spent quite a bit of time over the last year to set up a governance framework … ensuring that we put all the privacy controls and other protections in place to leverage these technologies responsibly.” — Ganesh Jayaram, Chief Digital and Information Officer
“That might mean that we delay some of our flights so as to accommodate our customers as needed in some of these hubs.” — Jayaram, on using AI to predict missed connections
“First and foremost, our job is to ensure that any digital tool or application we put out there is resilient.” — Jayaram
“End to end, our focus is to really improve interactivity, enable self-service for our customers, and take out friction at as many points of the customer journey as we can.” — Jayaram

Implications:

American Airlines’ AI push is more than just a tech upgrade — it’s a strategy to reimagine customer care in real time. By using predictive algorithms to potentially delay flights and wait for late passengers, the airline is shifting away from rigid schedules toward flexible, AI-assisted decision-making. These updates may set new industry standards for what digital transformation in travel should look like: real-time, responsive, and customer-first. With delays still plaguing a significant portion of U.S. flights, American is betting that smarter tech means smoother journeys — and happier passengers.

Source: https://www.pymnts.com/news/artificial-intelligence/2025/american-airlines-uses-ai-to-digitally-transform-travel/