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United Airlines resumes normal US departures after brief systemwide IT outage

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United Airlines resumes normal US departures after brief systemwide IT outage
Policy
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Scott Kirby, chief executive officer | United Airlines

United Airlines resumed normal operations after a nationwide ground stop late on Tuesday, September 23. The airline had asked the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to halt all departing flights in the United States and Canada due to a connectivity failure just before midnight Central Time. The disruption lasted about 30 minutes before engineers restored critical functions.

A United spokesperson explained that the problem was related to systems required for processing departures. "The full stop lasted approximately 30 minutes, and the operational impact was not as severe as it could have been, given the time that it occurred." However, residual delays were expected, especially at Western hubs where many flights were still operating during the incident.

This marks the second significant technology issue for United Airlines in just over a month. In August, a similar outage delayed over 1,000 flights at major airports such as Newark, Denver, Houston, and Chicago. At that time, United described the situation as a “controllable delay,” though disruptions continued into the following day and compensation was provided to affected customers.

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Frequent interruptions of this kind put stress on customer trust and highlight how essential reliable IT systems are for airlines’ daily operations. System failures can quickly lead to widespread delays or cancellations and damage an airline’s reputation. United has been working to position itself as a premium brand but faces challenges when reliability is questioned by recurring issues.

Industry comparisons point out that Delta Air Lines is often seen as the leading premium carrier in the US because of its consistent reliability and strong financial performance. Delta regularly ranks high for on-time arrivals and has seen growth in passenger numbers and revenue partly because of its dependable service.

The repeated outages at United underscore risks associated with insufficient system redundancy. As airlines continue digital upgrades, balancing innovation with system robustness is necessary to ensure critical operations are protected by backups and well-tested recovery plans.

Similar technical problems have also affected other carriers recently. Fox Business reported that American Airlines experienced maintenance-related application failures on Wednesday, September 24. This caused more than 800 delayed flights across the country with some delays lasting over two hours. American stated via X that while no flights were canceled due to this glitch, ongoing efforts were needed to resolve disruptions.

Both United and American Airlines emphasized their focus on avoiding flight cancellations during these incidents since canceling departures has greater operational consequences compared to delays. Rebooking passengers and rerouting aircraft crews become much more complicated when cancellations occur.

The overnight timing of United’s latest outage helped limit its impact compared to daytime disruptions like those faced by American Airlines.

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