United flights resume as grounding slows thousands of fliers

The world’s second-largest airline, United Airlines, resumed flights Wednesday following a computer fault that grounded U.S. departures for about two hours, delaying thousands of travelers.

A United spokesman said an issue with a router caused the shutdown from about 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. Eastern time. As of noon EST, 444 flights – or about 20 percent of the airline’s daily total – were delayed. According to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, the interruption only affected jets still on the ground.

The computer malfunction is the second such incident for the airline in less than six weeks, following similar issues that occurred June 2 when a lack of “proper dispatch information” halted flights for less than an hour, according to Bloomberg Business.

United said all fliers affected by the delays would be able to get a waiver to rebook trips without penalty.

Read more from Bloomberg Business.