United Airlines flights grounded nationwide because of computer problems

WASHINGTON — Hundreds of United Airlines flights were disrupted on Wednesday evening as the carrier grappled with a major computer system outage.

“Due to a technology issue, we are holding United mainline flights at their departure airports,” the airline said in a statement.

At the carrier’s request, the Federal Aviation Administration issued ground stops for all of its United flights at the airline’s major hubs including Chicago, Houston, Denver, Newark, N.J. and San Francisco. This does not include flights on the company’s smaller regional jets.

“We expect additional flight delays this evening as we work through this issue. Safety is our top priority, and we’ll work with our customers to get them to their destinations,” the airline said.

United passengers turned quickly to social media, complaining that they were stuck on planes that were paralyzed at the gate or on the tarmac. Other travelers arrived at their destinations, only to find immobilized planes blocking their arrival gates.

Some jets that were preparing for takeoff and had been waiting for the problems to resolve eventually returned to their gates for passengers to deplane. United flights that were already in the air were not affected by the technology issue.

United is just the latest major carrier to suffer a systemwide computer meltdown.

In 2022, Southwest Airlines fell apart during the busy Christmas holiday travel period. A major winter storm caused travel disruptions across the U.S., forcing airlines to cancel thousands of flights. While most recovered relatively quickly, Southwest did not. The airline ultimately canceled 16,900 flights, stranding more than 2 million passengers.

Last summer, it was Delta Air Lines that cancelled thousands of flights after a major system outage triggered by a faulty software update.