July 08--An issue with a router caused the grounding of United Airlines flights nationwide early Wednesday morning, the airline said, creating delays and long lines at airport terminals.
The router problem "degraded network connectivity for various applications," said Jennifer Dohm, United spokeswoman.
The airline requested a ground stop for U.S. departures at 5:26 a.m. PDT; the order was lifted at 6:47 a.m.
Sign up for our daily Today's Headlines newsletter
"We fixed the router issue, which is enabling us to restore normal functions," Dohm said in an email.
Ten flights out of Los Angeles International Airport were delayed, said Katherine Alvarado, airport spokeswoman. She said all United passengers should check their flight time with the airline before coming to LAX.
United's glitch occurred shortly before a technical issue caused a halt in trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The Department of Homeland Security said there was no indication these incidents were related or were the result of a hack.
The problems were the latest malfunction for United since the carrier switched to the computer systems used by merger partner Continental Airlines in 2012. A little over a month ago, United briefly grounded all flights.
Immediately after the ground stop was lifted Wednesday, lines of passengers wrapped around LAX United Terminal 7. Children sat on suitcases and played games on smartphones or listened to music on headphones. Airport staff ran among the lines to find customers who didn't need to check baggage, and to hand out bottles of water.
"My biggest issue is United's website has the flight coming in on time," said Tracey Swafford, 30, who arrived at LAX at 6:30 a.m. for an 8:12 a.m. flight to Panama. "We didn't get an alert until we got here."
Mike Adler and his wife arrived at Boston's Logan International Airport about 6 a.m. PDT Wednesday, ready to begin their vacation to Los Angeles. What they found were long, snaking lines and frustrated travelers at the United counters.
Adler, 41, said he soon discovered that the airline was having technical problems -- flight attendants were writing luggage tags by hand and converting pre-printed boarding passes into scribbled pieces of paper.
"It's frustrating on the front end of your vacation to get to an airport and see incredibly long lines," he said. "It's one thing when weather causes your plane to be delayed, when it's things they don't have control over ... but it's an entirely different thing for their entire system go to down."
"It just weakens your trust in whether they really can run an airline of this size," he said.
United already lags in popularity compared with airlines such as Delta, and Wednesday's bad publicity might not help, said Seth Kaplan, managing partner for publication Airline Weekly.
"United has not established that kind of reputation as being an extraordinarily reliable airline," he said. "Even though it has overall improved in recent years, these very visible incidents are going to do nothing to help that reputation."
But, he added, it was possible for the airline to recover from the incidents.
ALSO
New York Stock Exchange halts trading
Airline trade group's plan for smaller carry-ons bags on hold
Are airlines colluding to keep ticket prices up? Feds are investigating
UPDATES
10:22 a.m.: This article has been updated throughout with additional details.
8:54 a.m. This article has been updated with details about Los Angeles International Airport.
8:06 a.m. This article has been updated throughout with additional details.
7:14 a.m.: This article has been updated with context and additional details.
7:07 a.m.: This article has been updated throughout with additional details.
6:56 a.m.: This article has been updated with comment from United.
This article was originally published at 6:19 a.m.
