CHICAGO — A five-hour computer outage that virtually shut down United Airlines on Friday night and early Saturday is a stark reminder of how dependent airlines have become on technology.
Passengers saw their flight information vanish from airport screens, and thousands were stranded as United canceled 36 flights and delayed 100 worldwide.
The airline still had no explanation Saturday afternoon for the outage.
The shutdown Friday occurred late enough in the day that many of the canceled flights were the last planes out for the day, said Henry Harteveldt, an airline analyst with Forrester Research. On a Monday morning, the results could have been catastrophic.
“It happened as a lot of the airline was going to sleep for the night,” Harteveldt said.
That wasn’t much comfort to the travelers whose flights were disrupted.
“I’m just amazed at how catastrophic the failure was,” said Jason Huggins, 35, who was trying to fly home to Chicago after a week working at his software company’s San Francisco headquarters. “All the computer screens were blank, just showing the United logo.”
Huggins paid $1,200 to book one of the last three seats left on an American Airlines flight home.
Social workers Penny Nordstrom, 57, and Emily Schaefer, 42, who were trying to get home from Cancun, Mexico, to Spirit Lake, Iowa, said their delays started with a computer problem at midday Friday in Mexico.
“We’re way past 24 hours now,” Nordstrom said about noon Saturday before she boarded a rebooked flight from Chicago O’Hare International Airport to Detroit for a connection to Sioux Falls. She expected to get home about midnight but hoped her travel insurance would offer some compensation.
United spokesman Charles Hobart said late Saturday afternoon that the airline didn’t expect to cancel any more flights this weekend because of the computer problems, though delays might continue.
Mary Clark, a United spokeswoman, said she couldn’t say how many passengers were delayed or how many still needed to reach their destination by midday Saturday. About the outage itself, she and other airline personnel said only that it was caused by “a network connectivity issue.”
Airlines rely on computers today more than ever. Reservations and customer service are largely automated; even flight paths are increasingly computer-generated. Most passengers are asked to check-in online, at airport kiosks or via mobile phone, and paper tickets are a thing of the past.
Airplanes also are flying fuller this summer than ever before. United’s were 86.8 percent booked on average in May.
DIA flights back on track
Flight officials said United’s operations at Denver International Airport were back to normal Saturday but the airline is still working to accommodate customers affected by the computer outage Friday.
United did not request any cots or blankets for its DIA passengers Friday night, and the number of passengers who slept at the airport was average, according to officials.
Customers are encouraged to check in for their flights online and print their boarding passes before arriving at the airport.
The Denver Post
