United blames delays on equipment breakdown

Widespread disruption to United passengers this week was caused by an equipment failure, officials said on Thursday.

Travel Insurance News - 30/08/2012

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Widespread disruption to United passengers this week was caused by an equipment failure, officials said on Thursday.

United spokeswoman Mary Ryan said on behalf of the Chicago- and Houston-based airline that all systems were working normally Thursday after Wednesday's “network outage”.

The comments came a day after the airline was forced to cancel nine flights and delay some 580 departures after its ticketing and check in systems failed for more than hours. The ordeal saw United personnel struggling to process a massive backlog of thousands of passengers at several of its hubs, including O'Hare International Airport in Chicago where check-in staff hand-wrote boarding passes.

And today the firm said in a statement that the outage began when a key communication device failed in one of the United data centres, which subsequently caused its airport systems and website to fail. Officials said that an enquiry had been launched with the aid of equipment manufacturers and software developers to determine why backup systems had not come online following the initial failure.

The carrier, which has seen similar problems amid its ongoing merger effort with Continental, has issued an apology and said that all affected passengers are being re-accommodated as quickly as possible. Passengers have a choice of rebooking tickets without change fees or cancelling for a refund, officials said.

<< Hurricane Isaac prompts flight disruptions | Travel News | Lufthansa cabin crew to resume strikes Tuesday >>