United Airlines said they resolved the issue, but expected delays before they returned to normal operations.
HOUSTON — A “technology issue” that caused United Airlines flights to be held at Bush Airport and others across the country Wednesday is now resolved, according to a statement from the company.
According to United, the issue that grounded the fleet nationwide began at 5:12 p.m. A little after 9 p.m., United said the underlying issue had been resolved, but there would still be delays as they worked to restore normal operations.
The system that was impacted is named Unimatic, which, according to United, houses information about each flight that is then fed to other systems, including those that calculate weight and balance and track flight times. The company said this outage was not related to recent concerns about cybersecurity in the airline industry.
United said it is treating this as a controllable delay, meaning it will pay customer expenses such as hotels where applicable.
Some passengers at Bush Airport said they were on the tarmac for more than two hours.
“It was frustrating,” said one passenger. “I’ve been gone for two weeks and I’m really ready to be home.”
“They put us on buses and bussed us to the terminal,” another passenger said.
KHOU 11 first noticed messages about the issue on social media at around 7 p.m. and reached out to United for a statement.
Shortly after our request for comment, they replied, “Due to a technology issue, we are holding United mainline flights at their departure airports. 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.”
United then sent an updated statement, saying the cause of the outage has has been resolved, but there would still be delays.
“We are working with customers to get them to their destinations after a technology disruption on Wednesday evening,” United’s statement read. “The underlying technology issue has been resolved, and, while we expect residual delays, our team is working to restore our normal operations.”
Aside from Bush Airport, other airports that were affected include San Francisco International, Denver International, Chicago O’Hare, Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington D.C., and Newark International, according to the FAA’s National Airspace System Status.