United Airlines resumes flights after a morning computer glitch halts flights for third time this year

United Continental Holdings Inc. temporarily grounded some flights today after a computer failure, the third such network disruption this year at the world’s largest airline.

Service was returning to normal as of 11 a.m. New York time after interruptions to Chicago-based United’s main jet operations, Rahsaan Johnson, a spokesman, said in an e-mail. Regional flights weren’t affected, said Johnson, who didn’t have a tally yet of how many trips were affected.

Today’s failure followed a computer malfunction that delayed 580 flights in August, when backup systems couldn’t prevent the shutdown of automated check-ins at airports and on the airline’s website. In March, computer issues affected airport check-in kiosks and information on United’s website.

United, created in the merger of UAL Corp.’s United Airlines and Continental Airlines Inc., and its regional partners operate more than 5,600 flights a day. It has hubs in Newark, New Jersey; Houston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington and Cleveland.

To contact the reporters on this story: Mary Schlangenstein in Dallas at [email protected]; Victoria Stilwell in New York at [email protected]. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Ed Dufner at [email protected].