Published on August 7, 2025 |
Author: Paramita Sarkar
On Wednesday evening, August 6, 2025, United Airlines knowledgeable a important exertion outage that led to nan cancellation of complete 110 flights crossed its network. The disruption, which began astir 6:15 p.m. ET, affected awesome hubs including Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR), San Francisco International Airport (SFO), Denver International Airport (DEN), and George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH). The rumor stemmed from a nonaccomplishment successful nan airline’s Unimatic system, which handles captious formation information specified arsenic weight and equilibrium calculations and formation tracking.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) besides intervened, issuing ground stops astatine respective awesome airports. This contributed to wide delays and cancellations not only astatine United Airlines hubs but besides astatine different airports astir nan United States. Passengers faced monolithic disruptions arsenic United Airlines struggled to reconstruct its systems, affecting some home and world flights. The airline, successful response, was forced to connection compensation and rebooking options, but nan chaos continued good into nan night.
Flight Cancellations and Affected Routes
According to FlightAware, United Airlines had canceled 23 flights by 6:25 p.m. ET, pinch nan number expanding arsenic nan evening progressed. The cancellations impacted some home and world routes, pinch notable disruptions connected flights departing from and arriving astatine awesome U.S. airports.
Key Affected Routes:
- Newark (EWR): Several departures and arrivals were canceled aliases delayed, including flights to destinations specified arsenic Chicago (ORD), San Francisco (SFO), and Denver (DEN).
- San Francisco (SFO): Over 150 United flights were delayed, and 11 were canceled, affecting some home and world connections.
- Denver (DEN): Multiple flights were delayed, pinch passengers experiencing extended hold times some connected nan tarmac and astatine gates.
- Houston (IAH): Delays and cancellations were reported, impacting flights to various destinations crossed nan U.S.
FlightAware’s MiseryMap highlighted these airports arsenic nan astir affected, pinch galore delays and cancellations passim nan evening.
Passenger Impact and Airline Response
Passengers reported important disruptions, including extended hold times connected nan tarmac and astatine gates. Some travelers knowledgeable delays of up to 3 hours earlier being allowed to disembark. United Airlines responded by offering edifice accommodations and $200 compensation to affected passengers. Additionally, nan hose provided waivers for rescheduling flights booked earlier August 5 for recreation betwixt August 7 and 10, allowing passengers to rebook without incurring other costs.
The FAA issued crushed stops astatine respective awesome airports, including Newark, Chicago, and San Francisco, contributing to wide delays crossed nan U.S. airspace.
Technical Details and Resolution
The outage was traced to a nonaccomplishment successful United’s Unimatic system, which is basal for calculating craft weight and equilibrium and search formation data. United Airlines confirmed that nan rumor was not a cyberattack and did not impact United Express location flights aliases craft already successful nan air. The strategy was restored aft a fewer hours, but residual delays persisted into nan night.
The incident follows a akin disruption astatine Alaska Airlines earlier this year, raising concerns astir nan reliability of hose exertion systems during highest recreation times.
Chaos astatine awesome airports
The exertion outage that grounded complete 110 United Airlines flights created chaos astatine awesome airports, including Newark, San Francisco, Denver, and Houston. While nan strategy issues person since been resolved, nan hose continues to activity done nan backlog of delays and cancellations. United Airlines offered compensation to passengers and is taking steps to forestall further disruptions.
Travelers affected by nan outage are advised to cheque nan United Airlines website and FlightAware for nan latest accusation connected formation statuses and rebooking options.
The incident highlights nan vulnerability of hose operations to technological failures, and it remains to beryllium seen whether United will instrumentality further safeguards to forestall specified disruptions successful nan future.
Image: United Airlines