Topline
United Airlines has lifted a brief nationwide ground stop that was the result of an equipment issue that halted flights for one of the nation’s busiest airlines.
United Airlines planes sit on the runway at Newark Liberty International Airport on November 30, … [+]
Key Facts
In a post shortly before 1:40 p.m. on X, formerly known as Twitter, United said it was “experiencing a systemwide technology issue and are holding all aircraft at their departure airport.”
Around 1:50 p.m. Tuesday, United tweeted the ground stop was lifted.
According to FlightAware, 211 United flights had been delayed as of 2 p.m. Tuesday.
Big Number
793. That’s how many reports were logged on Downdetector as of 1:45 p.m. Tuesday afternoon. More than 770 reports of issues involved United Airlines on Tuesday, 90% of which were delays.
Key Background
United Airlines said last week it expected to have some of its busiest travel days of the year this Labor Day weekend, predicting August 31 and September 1 would be the busiest, ABC reported. It was expected that more than 20 million passengers would fly out of U.S. airports between Thursday and Tuesday, marking a 14% increase from last year, according to Hopper, a travel booking app. Earlier this summer, United struggled with high numbers of delays and cancellations going into the Fourth of July weekend, when it had to cancel more than 2,000 flights. In late June, United CEO Scott Kirby blamed the airline’s service meltdown on the FAA and “a lack of adequate staffing at air traffic control centers,” CNN reported.
Further Reading
