(Newswire.net — July 8, 2015) — Thousands of United Airlines passengers across the globe were grounded Wednesday, after a computer glitch paralyzed the company’s network connectivity, NBC News reported.
About 3,500 flights, reaching almost 235 domestic and 138 international destinations, were affected. However, aviation experts say the delay had a snowball effect, which resulted in further flight delays of epic proportions.
“Its going to not only affect flights in the air but all flights on the ground,” Anthony Roman, a former pilot and president of Roman & Associates told MSNBC. “They have flights in gates that should be occupied by another flight.”
“We experienced a network connectivity issue this morning,” United Airlines confirmed in a statement after 9 am, apologizing for the inconvenience.
Giving that United Airlines merges with Continental Airlines, aviation experts said the delay has costly and hugely negative impact.
Aviation experts said the day’s events could prove costly for United Airlines, which has worked to regain its footing, and finally sorted out most of the problems in merging with Continental Airlines.
Reportedly, the ground stop was lifted around 9:20 am, and customers were offered to change their flights.
Passengers at airports from California to Florida complained of system backups and long lines. Some gate agents were even forced to write tickets by hand.
At some boarding check points, passengers without hard copies of their tickets were not allowed to board the plane, which cause d even more delays and aggravated passengers who had already boarded, NBC Connecticut reported.
Former Massachusetts senator Scott Brown said, via Twitter, that he and other customers were receiving conflicting information from the airline, NBC reported.