By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Frontier Airlines on Monday temporarily halted all flights after a technology issue, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the airline.
A Frontier spokeswoman said the airline was moving to ramp back up operations. The FAA said in a notice that it was issuing a ground stop for all Frontier flights nationwide "for automation issues" at the airline's request.
Flight tracking website Flightradar24 tweeted at 11:08 a.m. ET (1608 GMT) that Frontier "currently has no airborne flights right now." Another aviation tracking website, FlightAware, said Frontier had canceled 20% of flights on Monday and delayed 23%.
An airline spokeswoman said the "issue was identified and has been resolved. We are working to restore our flight schedule for the balance of the day." The airline did not immediately say when it planned to resume flights.
The problems came as Frontier and Spirit Airlines (NYSE:SAVE) on Monday unveiled plans to merge in a $2.9 billion deal that would create the fifth-largest U.S. airline.