United Airlines grounded flights on major routes Wednesday after a technology issue disrupted key systems, with delays continuing into the evening.
A system called Unimatic, which manages flight data like weight, balance, and timing, went down for several hours. United said the problem was resolved by late Wednesday, though some disruptions lingered into Thursday. The root cause remains unclear but was not related to airline industry cybersecurity issues.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, all United flights headed to Chicago were temporarily halted. Operations at major hubs like Denver, Newark, Houston, and San Francisco were also affected.
“Safety is our top priority, and we’ll work with our customers to get them to their destinations,” United said in an email statement.
By Wednesday, FlightAware reported that 35% of United flights were delayed and 6% were canceled.
Travelers, including Johan Kotze, expressed frustration over the chaos. Kotze, flying from New Orleans to Mauritius, feared missing multiple connections and losing bookings for transportation and accommodations. “It’s not very nice,” he said.
United issued apologies via social media and promised to cover some travelers’ hotel and other expenses. On X, the airline responded to a customer: “We apologize for the travel disruption today… Our teams are working to resolve the outage as quickly as possible.”
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