United Airlines has announced the end of a nationwide ground stop that lasted for an hour following a software update that caused a widespread slowdown in the company's technology systems. The airline, headquartered in Chicago, has acknowledged that it is currently investigating the cause of the incident but has confirmed that it was not a cybersecurity issue.
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It is worth noting, however, that the issue did not affect flights that were already in the air and were able to continue to their intended destinations without any issues. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reported that it had implemented the ground stop at United's request.
The ground stop lasted just over an hour and came to an end at approximately 1:45 p.m. EDT (1745 GMT), according to FAA records and United Airlines. FlightAware, a flight tracking website, has reported that United had canceled seven flights and delayed 364 flights, amounting to 13% of its flights on Tuesday.
It is worth noting that airline ground stops due to computer issues are rare but not unheard of. For instance, in April, Southwest Airlines reported a technology failure that caused a one-hour nationwide interruption of its flights. Following the incident, United shares closed down 2.6%.