Due a United Airlines computer issue, thousands of flights were delayed at airports around the world. Though the issue is now solved, The Associated Press reported that this is the third major computer outage since June for United Airlines.
The AP reported that the outage lasted for approximately two hours on Thursday morning. In the morning passengers reported that agents said that a backup system was allowing some flights to take off but reports earlier said that computers were down and the airline was not aware when they would be back running again.
At approximately 3:30 p.m. USA Today reported that United's computers were up and running again. United spokesman, Charles Hobart said to USA Today, "We're up and running. Getting back to normal."
Hobart told USA Today the issue had to do with an outage in the dispatch system that is necessary to have communication with the planes before takeoff. He told USA Today that affected less than 200 flights and most of them were on the East Coast.
Customers complained of the delays. Traveler Judd Shapiro said to the AP that when he got to his gate at Boston's Logan Airport he was told that the plane was able to land but could not take off. He said , "JetBlue is taking off, American is taking off, but United is on the ground."
Travis Robertson, another United traveler, said to USA Today via email that "he did not expect to make his connection to Baltimore, but this afternoon emailed to say that he had made it only because his connecting flight was also delayed. Gate agents were asking four flyers to volunteer to get bumped to a later flight."
In March United which merged with Continental had a glitch in the system when it switched to Continental's computer system. This caused issues for passengers for a few days.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
