A United ground stop has been lifted at at multiple airports across the country, though there are still residual delays. The ground stop impacted major hubs like Chicago O’Hare International Airport for several hours.
United said around 7 p.m. CT that a “technology issue” had prompted them to request the ground stop and hold departures. They released a statement around 9 p.m. CT saying that issue had been resolved.
“We are working with customers to get them to their destinations after a technology disruption on Wednesday evening. The underlying technology issue has been resolved, and, while we expect residual delays, our team is working to restore our normal operations,” the statement read.
The ground stops impacted major United hubs in in Denver, Houston, San Francisco and Newark.
Flights already in the air were able to continue to to their destinations and United Express’ regional flights were not affected, but were delayed going into some of airports due to a rippling traffic jam effect.
The exact number of delays from these ground stops are not yet known, but are in the hundreds and rising.
Video taken by a passenger at O’Hare shows a line of United planes stopped on the tarmac that have recently landed, waiting because no gates are available.
United also sent a text message to passengers saying in part, “Due to a technology outage, we are temporarily holding some Untied flights at their departure airports to manage gate availability at destination airports. This may result in delays throughout the evening as we work to resolve the situation.”
Shortly after 8 p.m. CT, the pilot on a United flight in Chicago told passengers the issue has been resolved but there were still major delays in place because passengers deplaned from flights waiting to depart and now would have to re-board in order for those flights to leave their gates and make room for the arriving flights that have been waiting on the tarmac.
Chicago O’Hare airport was reporting departure delays averaging two hours as of 9:10 p.m.
The ground stops only affected United flights.
contributed to this report.
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