United Airlines was forced to ground flights across several major US airports on Wednesday after a technical issue disrupted its internal systems. More than 1,000 flights were delayed and around six percent of were cancelled, The Associated Press reported, citing data from FlightAware.
According to the report, the issue stemmed from a malfunction in Unimatic, United’s flight operations system. The platform feeds vital information into systems that calculate weight and balance, flight times, among other things. The airline said that the issue was resolved late Wednesday, but disruptions spilled into Thursday.
Multiple Hubs Affected, Including Chicago and Newark
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a ground stop for United flights headed to Chicago, with additional delays affecting flights bound for the United’s hubs in Denver, Houston, Newark and San Francisco.
“Safety is our top priority, and we will work with our customers to get them to their destinations,” United said.
United clarified that the outage, which lasted for several hours, wasn’t linked to cybersecurity concerns, a matter that has been under intense scrutiny in the aviation industry.
Stranded Travellers Express Frustration
The chaos left many passengers in limbo. One of them travelling from New Orleans to Mauritius for a vacation told the Associated Press that delays meant he would likely miss connecting flights and will need to rebook hotels and a rental car.
“It is not very nice”, the flyer said about the experience in conversation with the news agency.
United Offers Apologies and Support
United took to social media platform X to issue an apology and provide necessary assistance. “Hey there, we apologise for the travel disruption today…” the airline said to affected travellers, adding that it would cover hotel and incidental expenses in some cases.
