UPDATE: July 8, 2015, 10:58 AM EDT
NEW YORK (AP) — All United Continental flights in the U.S. were grounded temporarily Wednesday due to computer problems.
Less than two hours later, United requested the Federal Aviation Administration lift the ground stop order, FAA spokesman Lynn Lunsford said.
A passenger in San Francisco told The Associated Press around 10 a.m. Eastern that passengers were being asked to board planes again.
United cited “network connectivity” for the problems.
It is the second time in two months that the carrier has been hit by major technical issues.
The Chicago company had halted all takeoffs in the U.S. on June 2 due to what the airline described as computer automation issues.
The Federal Aviation Administration used the same language in its notice about the outage Wednesday.
United suffered a series of computer problems in 2012 after switching to a passenger information computer system previously used by merger partner Continental Airlines.
In each case, hundreds of flights were delayed. A number of high-paying business travelers defected to otherairlines and revenue dropped.
“We don’t know everything behind this morning’s issues yet, but today’s incident underscores the sense that something is very wrong at United,” said Gary Leff, co-founder of frequent-flier website MilePoint.
Shares of United Continental Holdings Inc. slid 2 percent to $53.08 in early morning trading.
__________
Michelle Chapman in New York, Matt Small in San Francisco, and Joan Lowy in Washington contributed to this story.
Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Per the FAA, the grounding is over and UA is flying.
I had heard that they were back to flying an hour and a half ago. I think this story needs a rewrite as it buried that fact in a single sentence and did not come out and say the flights were back on.
“All United Continental flights in the U.S. were grounded temporarily Wednesday due to computer problems.”
I don’t know what’s going on with United these days. Some commenter elsewhere said the last four of flights he’s booked have been cancelled. Son-in-law’s scheduled flight to SF was cancelled yesterday, and he had to take a later one.
I can understand weather-related cancellations, delays. But just what is causing those to happen in other cases?
Holy crap. The NYSE has suspended trading of all securities! “Technical issues.”
There are lots of reasons, mostly having to do with shifting planes and crew to cover the flights with the most booked travelers in the event of mechanical problems or crew shortages.
Not enough planes or crews.
In another post, I commented that our full flight from SF to Dulles, with the crew getting ready to board, was cancelled. “Mechanical issues”, we were told. Found out from an airport worker that the same flight had been cancelled the day before and several times in previous weeks.
I know all airlines have their issues, but customer service seems to be on the back burner for some of these carriers.