United Airlines flights ground stop affected hundreds of flights Wednesday evening as the airline grappled with a major technology issue that prompted nationwide flight disruptions. The carrier requested ground stops at its major hubs across the United States, including Chicago O’Hare, Houston, Denver, Newark, and San Francisco airports.
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┃ • Ground stop issued for all United mainline flights on August 6, 2025 ┃
┃ • Technology issue with weight and balance computer system caused disruption ┃
┃ • Ground stop lasted approximately 3 hours, resolved by 9:25 PM ET ┃
┃ • Over 870 flights affected according to FlightAware tracking data ┃
┃ • United Express flights were not affected by the ground stop ┃
┃ • No cybersecurity threat involved, confirmed by airline officials ┃
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛The outage stemmed from an issue with the airline’s weight and balance computer system, United confirmed in official statements. This critical system calculates proper weight distribution for aircraft safety before takeoff. When the system failed, United had no choice but to halt all mainline departures until technicians could restore functionality.
At the carrier’s request, the Federal Aviation Administration issued ground stops for all United flights at the airline’s major hubs including Chicago, Houston, Denver, Newark, N.J. and San Francisco. The ground stop affected only United’s mainline fleet, which operates Boeing 737, 757, 767, 777, and 787 aircraft, plus Airbus jets.
Passengers experienced significant delays as planes sat at departure gates while crews waited for clearance to resume operations. Many travelers took to social media to share photos of crowded terminals and frustrated passengers checking flight status updates on their phones.
The timing proved particularly challenging for evening travelers. Business passengers rushing to catch connecting flights found themselves stranded at major airports across the country. Families with vacation plans faced uncertainty about whether their trips would proceed as scheduled.
The airline confirmed in a statement to ABC News that the issue was not related to a cyberattack. United officials emphasized that cybersecurity played no role in the technical malfunction. Instead, the problem appeared to be an internal system failure affecting the airline’s operational technology.
The ground stop did not affect United Express flights, and any flight that was already in the air continued to its destination, according to the airline. This meant regional flights operated by partner airlines could continue normal operations while United worked to resolve the mainline fleet issues.
Flight tracking data revealed the scope of the disruption. As of 9:25 p.m. ET, flight tracking data from FlightAware showed that 870 flights were affected by the technology glitch. Passengers on delayed flights received updates through the United mobile app and airport announcements as the airline worked to restore normal operations.
United’s operations teams worked rapidly to diagnose and fix the weight calculation system problem. The airline’s Chicago operations center coordinated with technical support staff to implement solutions. Ground crews at affected airports remained on standby to resume normal boarding procedures once clearance came through.
A “technology issue” that prompted a United Airlines ground stop at major airports has been resolved, the airline said Wednesday night. The resolution came after approximately three hours of system downtime. United immediately began working with affected customers to rebook flights and minimize further delays.
Airport restaurants and shops experienced increased business as stranded passengers sought food and entertainment during the extended wait. Hotel booking websites saw spikes in searches from travelers whose connecting flights were affected by the widespread delays.
Industry experts noted that weight and balance systems represent critical safety infrastructure for airlines. These computerized systems ensure aircraft remain within safe operating parameters during flight. Any malfunction requires immediate grounding until technicians can verify system integrity.
The incident highlighted aviation industry reliance on complex technology systems. Modern airline operations depend on interconnected computer networks managing everything from flight planning to passenger check-in. When core systems fail, the ripple effects impact thousands of travelers within hours.
United’s customer service teams worked overtime to assist affected passengers with rebooking options and compensation. The airline activated additional phone lines and deployed extra staff at major airports to handle increased passenger inquiries about delayed and cancelled flights.
Competition from other airlines intensified as travelers sought alternative flights. Delta, American, and Southwest saw increased booking activity from passengers originally scheduled on United flights. Hotel availability near major airports became limited as overnight stays increased.
The resolution marked the end of a challenging evening for United Airlines and its passengers. Normal flight operations resumed gradually as the airline worked to clear the backlog of delayed departures. Customer relations teams continued processing compensation requests and rebooking assistance well into the following day.
What are your thoughts on airline technology reliability? Share your experiences with flight delays and how airlines handled the situation in the comments below.