Thousands of United Airlines’ passengers across the world were delayed Thursday evening for several hours due to a computer glitch.
The Chicago-based airline confirmed in a statement on its Twitter feed late on Thursday that an issue with its weight reporting system temporarily halted departures. The company apologized for the inconvenience and confirmed they were working “to get customers to their destinations as soon as possible.”
The airline said that the problem was resolved and the flights would be returning to normal in another tweet sent at 3 a.m. on Friday.
United Airlines didn’t give any information on the main reason of the glitch or the figure of the affected flights. Maddie King, the airline’s spokeswoman, announced that a “small number of flights” were affected by the glitch over the computer system. According to the company’s website, the airline has 4,550 daily departures and there are concerns that more than 60 flights were delayed or grounded due to a hack.
The delayed flights created long lines at airports across the country, particularly along the West Coast. Some passengers expressed frustration with United Airlines on social media and said they had been forced to wait on board planes or inside terminals for several hours.
It is the third computer-related issue to hit United Airlines in recent months and after the two previous incidents, the airline announced it had invested in backup plans.