United Airlines has been forced to ground flights across the United States following a significant technology failure, leaving thousands of passengers stranded and causing widespread travel chaos.
The airline confirmed the disruption late Tuesday, attributing the issue to an internal system outage affecting flight operations. Passengers reported long delays, cancelled flights, and confusion at major hubs including Chicago O'Hare, Denver International, and Newark Liberty.
Passenger Frustration Mounts
"We've been sitting here for three hours with no information," said one frustrated traveller at Denver International Airport. "The screens aren't working, the staff don't know what's happening, and our gate keeps changing every 20 minutes."
Airline Response
United issued a statement acknowledging the problem: "We're experiencing a system-wide technology issue that's impacting our ability to operate flights. Our teams are working urgently to resolve this matter and we apologise to our customers for the inconvenience."
The airline has advised passengers to check their flight status before heading to airports and promised waivers for those needing to rebook.
Industry-Wide Impact
This marks the second major operational meltdown for a US carrier this year, following similar incidents at Southwest Airlines in January. Aviation experts warn that aging IT infrastructure across the industry makes such failures increasingly likely.
The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed it was monitoring the situation but stressed this was an airline-specific issue rather than a broader air traffic control problem.
