CHICAGO — United Airlines planes began flying again around 10 a.m. Eastern time after flights in the U.S. had been grounded Wednesday morning for nearly two hours because of computer problems.
Around 8 a.m., the company informed the Federal Aviation Administration that it was not allowing planes to take off from airports, citing “automation issues.”
“We are recovering from a network connectivity issue this morning and restoring regular flight operations,” Chicago-based United said in a statement. “We will have a waiver available at united.com for customers who are able to change their flight plans.”
The ground stop was officially lifted at 9:45 a.m., the FAA said.
As of 10:30 a.m., United had delayed 376 flights, according to FlightStats.com.
United also grounded flights on the morning of June 2 because of automation issues. That grounding lasted about a half hour.
Whenever United has glitches with its passenger reservation system, the computer backbone of the airline, people have noticed in recent years because of its rampant problems with the system in 2012, as it combined operations of United and Continental following their merger.
Technical issues and poor training of employees led to rampant delays and cancellations, which over time led to mass customer defections and damaged profits at the airline.
It might not be the last of airline passengers hearing about passenger reservation systems. American Airlines is due later this year to combine its reservation system with US Airways, following the merger of those carriers.