United Airlines grounds flights across US following widespread system outage

More than 1,000 United Airlines flights were delayed on August 6 across the United States after a critical technology failure prompted the airline to temporarily ground its fleet, disrupting operations at major hubs and stranding thousands of passengers.

The outage affected a key internal system known as Unimatic, which manages essential flight information, including data used for calculating aircraft weight and balance and tracking flight durations, Caliber.Az reports, citing foreign media.

According to United, the issue was resolved on August 6, though residual delays and disruptions extended into August 7.

An alert posted on the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) website indicated that all United flights bound for Chicago were grounded at their points of departure. Flights headed to other major United hubs — including Denver, Newark, Houston, and San Francisco — were also impacted by the outage.

“Safety is our top priority, and we’ll work with our customers to get them to their destinations,” the Chicago-based airline said in an emailed statement. The company described the issue as a system outage lasting several hours and clarified that it was not related to any cybersecurity threat.

According to FlightAware, a flight-tracking platform, around 35% of United’s flights experienced delays on August 6, while 6% were canceled altogether.

Among those affected was Johan Kotze, a traveler attempting to fly from Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport to Mauritius for vacation. With his travel itinerary derailed, Kotze expressed concern over missing connecting flights and the need to rebook not just air travel but also car rentals and accommodations.

“It’s not very nice,” he said of the experience.

United Airlines took to social media to apologize to affected travelers, pledging support and assistance, including financial reimbursement in some cases.

“Hey there, we apologize for the travel disruption today,” the airline wrote on X in response to a customer inquiry. “Our teams are working to resolve the outage as quickly as possible. Thank you for your patience.”

By Vafa Guliyeva