WASHINGTON — The ground stop for United Continental flights in the U.S. has been lifted.
The Federal Aviation Administration says the automation issue has been resolved.
The ground stop lasted less than two hours later.
At 10 a.m., Christopher Paolino, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, said that flights at Dulles International Airport and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport were beginning to depart.
The airline’s reservation system went down, according to CBS News. The reservation system at United links into the flight dispatch system, CBS News Travel Editor Peter Greenberg says.
On its website, the Federal Aviation Administration initially said there were “automation issues” affecting flights.
Greenberg says it’s déjà vu. The system experienced the same thing last month.
United Continental Holdings Inc. had a temporary halt to all takeoffs in the U.S. on June 2 because of what the airline said were computer automation issues.
“It’s all linked in and they depend on this. If the pilots can’t get dispatch information from the system, that means they can’t, on a ground operation, give information to push back. That’s why you have the ground stop right now,” Greenberg says.
United suffered a series of computer problems in 2012 after switching to a passenger information computer system previously used by merger partner Continental Airlines.
“We don’t know everything behind this morning’s issues yet, but today’s incident underscores the sense that something is very wrong at United,” said Gary Leff, co-founder of frequent-flier website MilePoint.
The Chicago company did not immediately respond to a request for comment to The Associated Press.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
