United Airlines recently encountered another round of flight delays, affecting over 300 flights, after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) lifted a short-lived ground stop that continued to disrupt the airline’s services across the nation.
The trouble began on a Tuesday afternoon when United Airlines was forced to delay all of its flights nationwide due to what was described as an “equipment outage,” as per an alert from the Federal Aviation Administration.
About an hour later, an update from the FAA indicated that the “ground stop is cancelled.”
“We have identified a fix for the technology issue and flights have resumed. We’re working with impacted customers to help them reach their destinations as soon as possible,” United Airlines reassured its customers on social media.
Despite the reassurances, there were still 330 delayed flights as of 3 pm EST, accounting for approximately 12% of the airline’s operations, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware. However, the same tracking site reported that only 14 United flights were canceled on that Tuesday.
CNN reached out to United Airlines for more information regarding the lingering delays.
This latest episode of delays adds to the series of travel headaches that passengers have had to endure throughout the summer. Earlier in the summer, Hurricane Idalia and severe storms in early August disrupted air travel for thousands of passengers within the last month.
Many of the summer’s travel disruptions heavily impacted United Airlines’ customers. In late June, the airline experienced hundreds of flight cancellations and thousands of delays. Based on United’s typical passenger volumes from previous earnings reports and the number of canceled flights, it was estimated that more than 400,000 passengers had been booked on United flights that were subsequently canceled, as reported by CNN.
While inclement weather played a significant role in these disruptions, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby attributed much of the service meltdown to the FAA and staffing shortages in air traffic control centers.
However, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who oversees the FAA, offered a different perspective. He stated in an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, “Air traffic control issues are not the number one issue causing cancellations and delays. They’re not even the number two issue.”
As the situation unfolds, travelers and aviation authorities will continue to monitor the situation closely, hoping for smoother skies ahead for United Airlines and its passengers.
