Systems are back up at United Airlines after a nation-wide computer outage drastically disrupted operations but delays were expected throughout the weekend, the US carrier said Saturday. "Our systems are up. We are in the process of resuming (operations)," the airline said on the micro-blogging website Twitter.
It said it was working out a penalty waiver for those whose plans with the airline were affected. Glitches that also affected the main website were fixed, the airline said, adding: "We again apologise for the disruption caused to our customers."
Senior Vice President Alexandria Marren said there would be some "residual effect" on flights throughout the weekend and urged passengers to print their boarding passes before leaving home and to give themselves extra time. The airline said travellers affected by the computer outage could reschedule Saturday flights for free and urged them to consult united.com and continental.com for more details.
The outage struck at around 7:15 pm central time (0015 GMT Saturday), interrupting flight departures, airport processing and reservations systems, including access to the United website, the airline said. The glitch left thousands of passengers across the country stranded, some on planes and others waiting in airports.
One traveller in Portland, quoted by the Denver Post, said the airline told passengers they were "having system-wide computer problems affecting everything from reservations to weather reports for pilots." The Chicago-based airline did not say whether other airlines - notably its partner Continental - were affected by the outage. United merged with Continental on October 1 last year to form the world's largest airline group, with a cumulative total of some 5,820 flights daily, though the two companies still operate separately.
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