United Airlines Stops Flight Due to 'Technical Issue'! Here's The Detail

Liputan6.com, Jakarta United Airlines is back in the public spotlight after a series of technology outages led to massive flight delays and cancellations.

The airline giant faces serious challenges in maintaining smooth operations amid recurring systemic issues.

The most recent incident occurred in August 2025, when a vital Unimatic system experienced a disruption, forcing the airline to temporarily suspend domestic flights across the United States.

However, the “technology issue” that stopped the United Airlines mainline flights out of departure airports Wednesday night has been resolved, as reported by CNN.

“We are working with customers to get them to their destinations after a technology disruption on Wednesday evening,” a United Airlines spokesperson told CNN.

“The underlying technology issue has been resolved and while we expect residual delays, our team is working to restore our normal operations.”

This was not the first such incident, as a similar incident occurred in September 2023 and a major IT outage in July 2025.

The outage began at 6:12 p.m. ET and was resolved within a few hours, although residual delays continued into Wednesday night, the airline said.

About 31% of the carrier’s flights were delayed and 1% had been canceled as of 9:45 p.m. ET, according to flight data tracker FlightAware.

The disruption centered on the Unimatic system, a legacy system that stores and transmits critical flight information, including weight, balance, and flight time calculations.

The impact of the disruption was widespread, causing approximately 31% of United's flights to be delayed and 1% to be canceled overnight.

Major airports such as Chicago, Denver, Newark, Houston, and San Francisco were among the most critical hubs affected. Overall, more than 1,000 flights were delayed and more than 40 canceled.

United Airlines stated that the incident was being treated as a manageable delay, and the airline would cover the cost of accommodations, such as hotels, for affected customers.

Mainstream flights operated directly by United were grounded at their departure airports, while United Express (regional) flights were not directly affected but experienced a ripple effect.

The Federal Aviation Administration acknowledged the disruption, saying, “We’re aware United experienced a technology issue disrupting their operations. Some delays may continue as they work through the recovery process.”

The FAA is helping address United’s “flight backlog and remain in close contact with United.”

Prior to the August 2025 incident, United Airlines experienced a similar systemic disruption on Tuesday, September 5, 2023.

At that time, all United flights were grounded nationwide for over an hour due to a "systemic technology issue" caused by a software update.

The software update caused widespread slowdowns in United's technology systems, which the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) later confirmed were an "equipment issue."

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg confirmed that the issue was specific to United's operations and not related to the broader air traffic control system.

The immediate impact was that 301 United flights were systematically delayed and seven cancellations occurred by 1:30 p.m. CT.

Although the grounding was lifted around 12:50 p.m. CT after more than an hour, the incident demonstrated the vulnerability of the airline's systems to software updates.

A major IT outage was also reported on July 19, 2025, caused by a flawed CrowdStrike Falcon sensor update.

This outage crippled United's reservation system, which is crucial for weight and balance calculations, flight scheduling, and passenger rebooking.

The impact of this outage was severe, disrupting more than 1,400 flights and stranding thousands of passengers for three days.

This incident highlighted the systemic risks of the airline industry's reliance on third-party technology and the vulnerabilities of interconnected digital infrastructure.

To address the issue, technicians had to manually reboot 26,000 devices across 365 airports, a massive effort that allowed United to restore 99% of its flights within three days.

Airports in Chicago, Denver, Newark, Houston and San Francisco were impacted, according to the Federal Aviation Administration system status, which showed ground stops requested by United at about 7:30 p.m. ET.

Estimated compensation costs of between $100 million and $200 million, coupled with a 3.2% decline in UAL stock.