Overview

• Engineers restored United’s weight and balance computer system late Wednesday, prompting the FAA to lift ground stops at hubs including Chicago O’Hare, Newark, Denver, Houston and San Francisco.
• More than 1,000 flights were delayed and dozens canceled as the outage reverberated through United’s mainline network, with backlogs persisting into Thursday.
• Passengers affected by the disruption have been offered rebooking options, travel waivers and coverage for meal and hotel expenses.
• Flights already en route and regional United Express services continued operating normally throughout the system interruption.
• The outage has highlighted the aviation sector’s reliance on integrated IT systems and could spur regulators to tighten requirements for digital redundancy.