Yesterday afternoon at about 14:20 CDT, United Continental Holdings suffered a “network outage” lasting about two hours that affected its reservation and online systems. At least 200 flights around the world were affected, United acknowledged. At one point, United requested that the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration place ground-stops “to prevent flights from taking off to some of its hub airports, including San Francisco, Newark and Houston,” the Chicago Sun-Times reported. United Continental Holdings is the parent of United Airlines and, since a May 2010 merger, Continental Airlines. [read more..]