Computer problems grounded all United Airlines domestic flights for more than two hours Sunday evening and airport operators, including those at Denver International Airport, urged travelers to check their arrangements.
United spokeswoman Maddie King confirmed Sunday night that flights were grounded after 4:30 p.m. “due to an IT issue” and that, after 7 p.m., flights resumed.
“Customers may experience additional delays as we work to get flights out this evening,” King said in an emailed response late Sunday. “We are issuing a system-wide waiver and apologize for the inconvenience to our customers.”
The computer problems apparently involved information pilots receive, such as weight and balance information, before flights depart.
Based in Chicago, United Airlines and United Express operate 4,500 flights a day at airports worldwide. The computer problems Sunday evening apparently affected hundreds of flights. It was not clear exactly how many were grounded.
Denver International Airport spokeswoman Daria Serna said United officials notified DIA officials of their problems and the grounding of flights around 5:45 p.m.
Twitter bulletins from United shortly after 6 p.m. indicated airlines officials had ordered a nationwide grounding of domestic flights. Just after 7 p.m., a United bulletin said the grounding order had been lifted.
“We’re advising passengers to check their flight status with United to see if their flights are affected by these computer problems,” Serna said.
“They did let us know at Denver International Airport that they were having computer problems and were working to get these resolved as soon as possible.”
