Computer outage halts United flights for two hours

CHICAGO — A computer malfunction at United Airlines halted all departures systemwide for two hours Wednesday, forcing the delay or cancellation of nearly 300 flights, the carrier said.

Spokeswoman Robin Urbanski said the airline did not know the cause of the problem, which affected the systems United uses to dispatch flights for departure.

The outage lasted from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. CDT, when departures were able to resume after the computer functions returned.

United said about 268 domestic and international flights were delayed for an average 1 1/2 hours and 24 domestic flights were canceled.

The airline, a unit of Chicago-based UAL Corp., has about 3,600 flights daily.

“We are very sorry for the inconvenience today’s computer outage caused our customers,” Urbanski said Wednesday afternoon. “We continue to work hard to resume operations by tomorrow morning and kindly ask for our customers’ patience.”

FAA spokesman Allen Kenitzer in Seattle confirmed that all United flights across its system had been grounded because of the computer problem.

At O’Hare International Airport, United’s inbound and outbound flights were delayed between one and two hours and 29 United flights had been canceled, said spokeswoman Wendy Abrams.

No other airlines were affected.

United is the airport’s largest carrier.

The airline’s hubs are O’Hare, Washington Dulles International and airports in Denver, Los Angeles and San Francisco.