United Airlines Computer Problems
Update 5:30 P ET
We were advised that the United Airlines systemwide outage ended at approximately 5:20p ET, so the total duration was approximately two hours. There will likely be issues and cascading delays through the evening.
United Airlines has been experiencing a systemwide outage of their passenger service system (PSS), SHARES, since at least 3:20p ET. This system is used for reservations, ticketing, check-ins, etc. It is not operationally involved with safety of aircraft, but is critical for checking in and, in some cases, boarding passengers. It is expected to have a significant impact on United's airline this evening as flights will be delayed substantially because passengers will be unable to checkin for their flights as well as the other operational roles of SHARES.
The SHARES system is from Continental Airlines and the combined United/Continental airlines switched to a combined SHARES system on March 3rd, 2012.
At 4:30pm ET, the FAA issued a ground-stop for all United Airlines (including Express) for flights destined to Newark-EWR (90min) or San Francisco-SFO (30min), two of United's hubs.
Related Links
About FlightAware
FlightAware, a part of Collins Aerospace, is a leading provider of real-time and historical flight information and insights to the global aviation community. FlightAware serves all segments of the aviation marketplace through best-in-class applications and data services that provide comprehensive information about the current and predicted movement of aircraft. Through the collection, interpretation, and enrichment of hundreds of sources of data, including data from FlightAware's own proprietary terrestrial ADS-B network with tens of thousands of receivers spanning seven continents in 200 countries and territories, FlightAware transforms millions of raw flight data elements and delivers them as coherent, easy-to-consume flight stories. As a single source of accurate and actionable data for aviation players large and small, FlightAware is Central to Aviation®.
