10:36 AM: United Airlines is working today to rebook hundreds of passengers whose flights were cancelled Friday due to a downed computer system, an airport duty manager said.
There were no new delays or cancellations today, but airline officials were working to accommodate the passengers booked on eight domestic and four international flights that were cancelled Friday when the computers went down for several hours, duty manager Dan D’Innocenti said.
Flights to Sydney and Osaka, Japan that were cancelled Friday night are flying today, D’Innocenti said. Stranded passengers headed to London and Frankfurt were being rebooked on today’s flights.
United also hopes to have all of the stranded domestic passengers on new flights today, according to D’Innocenti.
A spokesperson for the company could not be reached for comment.
Janna Brancolini, Bay City News
6/17 9:25 PM: Hundreds of passengers are stranded at San Francisco International Airport–and many more at airports nationwide–because of a United Airlines computer glitch that is preventing the airline from checking baggage.
Lines to gain information at the airline’s counter are several hundred people deep at SFO, according to Bryan Carmody, a communications director for United Service Organization of Northern California.
Between the USO’s centers at San Francisco and San Jose, at least 40 military people and their families are stranded because of the baggage-check meltdown, Carmody said.
Part of the problem, Carmody said, is that passengers cannot pass through airport security with anything larger than carry-on luggage and personal items.
“If you have a regular suitcase, you cannot get through security, and they have no way of checking bags,” he said.
A representative from United Airlines did not immediately return calls for comment this evening.
Despite word that four United flights would be departing–two to Honolulu, one to Las Vegas and one to Orlando–Carmody said that the USO was working to assist the families during the delays.
“We’re helping out families with travel arrangements, food, beverages, email, phones,” he said.
United operates flights out of all three of the Bay Area’s major airports–San Francisco International Airport, San Jose Mineta International Airport, and Oakland International Airport.
A duty manager at Oakland International Airport said no flights there were affected this evening. At San Jose International Airport, Vicki Day, director of customer services, said one flight had been delayed for an hour but there were no more United departures expected tonight.
Patricia Decker, Bay City News
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