United Airlines is having a big technical problem right now that has caused a lot of flights to be late and a nationwide ground stop. The airline has admitted that the system is down and is working hard to fix it. The disruption, which started on Wednesday, has affected hundreds of aircraft. Delays are anticipated to last all evening.
The airline said in a statement, “We are holding United mainline flights at their departure airports because of a technology problem.” As we work through this problem, we expect more flight delays tonight. Safety is our primary priority, and we’ll do everything we can to get our guests to their destinations.”
The ground halt only affects United mainline flights, which are run directly by the airline. But regional flights on United Express are not affected. Also, any flights that were already in the air when the disruption happened are still going to their planned destinations.
The airline can’t process important operational data because of a system malfunction. Sources say the problem is with the airline’s weight and balance calculating system. Many passengers are now stuck in key United hubs, such as Chicago, Denver, Newark, Houston, and San Francisco.
Unhappy travelers have been posting about their experiences on social media. One passenger on X said they were “Stuck on the tarmac in New Orleans” with “0 planes moving,” and another from Houston said their flight should have taken off five hours ago, but no other United planes were leaving. A third passenger, who was waiting at Dulles, was told by the flight crew that “a system outage on United systems has a bunch of United planes waiting on the tarmac.”
The outage has made passengers furious, and many of them have been told they can get off their planes with no idea when they will leave. The airline has said sorry for the trouble and that it is working on a resolution, but it is still not clear when the problems will be entirely fixed.