The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration had earlier notified that the airline had requested ground stops at major airports, including Newark, San Francisco, Chicago, Denver, and Houston.
United Airlines (UAL) said that it has resolved the underlying technology issue that grounded its mainline flights for a few hours on Wednesday.
“While we expect residual delays, our team is working to restore our normal operations,” the airline said in a statement. “We are working with customers to get them to their destinations.”
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration had earlier notified that the airline had requested ground stops at major airports, including Newark, San Francisco, Chicago, Denver, and Houston.
According to FlightAware data, 41 United flights have already been canceled, with 996, or 32% of its flights, delayed at the time of writing.
As per an ABC News report, citing the airline, a cyberattack did not cause the incident. The ground stop did not affect United Express flights or flights already in the air, which will continue toward their respective destinations.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy wrote on X that he was aware of the incident after being briefed by United CEO Scott Kirby. “The issue was specific to United’s operations and is unrelated to the broader air traffic control system,” Duffy said.
“The team at FAA is in close contact with their systems operations team, and we’ve offered our full support to help them clear up the flight backlog.”
Retail sentiment on Stocktwits about United was in the ‘bearish’ territory at the time of writing.
Last month, a system-wide IT issue caused Alaska Air flights to be grounded for several hours.
United Airlines stock has fallen 8.7% this year.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include United Airlines’ response, details on the issue’s resolution, and comments from the U.S. Transportation Secretary.<
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