CHICAGO— United Airlines (UA) initiated an urgent nationwide ground stop on Thursday night after a fire alarm was triggered at its operations center near Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD).
Flights already in the air were advised to expect airborne holding, while the ground stop, affecting United’s entire mainline fleet, was lifted within an hour. No diversions occurred, and regional United Express flights remained unaffected.
Photo: Aero Icarus | FlickrUnited Airlines Ground Flights
The emergency ground stop affected United Airlines (UA), which operates the world’s largest commercial fleet, comprising over 1,000 aircraft.
Triggered by a fire alarm at United’s primary operations center, the precautionary measure forced operations to transfer temporarily to a backup facility.
According to a company spokesperson, the alert led to the swift evacuation of key operational staff, causing a brief halt in nationwide departures. Fortunately, United’s regional partner network, United Express, which operates independently of the mainline control center, was not impacted.
This incident occurred mere days after Alaska Airlines (AS) experienced a similar, though technically unrelated, disruption.
Photo: By Eric Salard – N408AS LAX, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=43543100Alaska Airlines’ IT Outage Mirrors Operational Turbulence
On Sunday night, Alaska Airlines (AS) implemented a complete ground stop of its mainline fleet due to a significant IT outage.
The order, which began around 8:00 p.m. PT, temporarily grounded all Alaska Airlines aircraft, including those stationed at major hubs like Seattle (SEA), Portland (PDX), Los Angeles (LAX), and San Francisco (SFO).
The system failure later extended to Horizon Air, Alaska’s regional subsidiary, which operates 45 additional aircraft. Alaska Airlines’ fleet, totaling 238 Boeing aircraft, was fully grounded for hours, with operations resuming around 11:00 p.m. PT.
Passengers across the U.S. reported extensive delays, with many stuck aboard planes on tarmacs. One traveler in Denver (DEN) described a two-hour delay before being asked to disembark, while another noted that manual gate assignments via radio were causing further operational chaos.
Alaska warned travelers of “residual impacts” across its schedule into the following day.
Photo: Charles | FlickrBroader Implications
The two high-profile ground stops by United and Alaska have come amid ongoing challenges for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). These include staffing shortages following federal workforce reductions during the Trump administration, which reportedly affected up to 400 FAA employees.
Operational reliability has been a growing concern in recent months, and these back-to-back incidents have once again spotlighted the fragility of airline IT systems and centralized operations infrastructure.
While both airlines acted quickly to resume normal services, the temporary shutdowns underscore the critical importance of contingency planning in large-scale airline operations.
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