United Airlines Flights Resuming, says FAA

United Airlines flights around the world were halted for a few hours Wednesday morning because of a computer malfunction, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, but the grounding has been lifted.

United says about 3,500 flights are affected. Flights resumed around 9 a.m.

“It was absolute chaos,” Jim Herbert, 50, told the Chicago Sun-Times before he went through security at O’Hare International Airport.

The disruption to United’s morning schedule is expected to cause hours-long delays at airports around the nation and abroad. Lines are backing up at United ticket counters throughout the country. In some airports United ticket agents are checking passengers in with pen and paper.

“We experienced a network connectivity issue this morning,” United said in a statement when the flights were grounded. “We are working to resolve this and apologize to our customers for any inconvenience.”

The FAA described the problem as an “automation issue” in an alert.

The airline has waived change fees for customers affected by Wednesday’s problems:

• The change fee and any difference in fare will be waived for new flights departing between July 8, 2015 and July 10, 2015, as long as travel is rescheduled in the same cabin (any fare class) and between the same cities as originally ticketed.

• For wholly rescheduled travel departing after July 10, 2015, or for a change in departure or destination city, the change fee will be waived, but a difference in fare may apply. Rescheduled travel must be completed within one year from the date when the ticket was issued.

Extra security was dispatched to deal with the crowds, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

“We’re getting reports that the Chicago Police Department and Aviation (Department) security were sent to the terminal to deal with crowds,” Owen Kilmer, spokesman for the city’s Department of Aviation, said. “Just really long lines and a lot of crowds. … I don’t have an exact number [of passengers delayed]. But, it was big enough so that they felt it necessary to send Aviation security and police to help.”

On June 2, a similar problem affected some United flights, forcing a partial grounding of the carrier’s fleet. United serves nearly 400 airports and about 5,000 flights daily, according to StarAlliance.com. United is headquartered in Chicago.