United Airlines flights grounded last night due to IT issues

A halt on all worldwide United Airlines flights has been lifted after eight minutes.

The fleet was reportedly grounded due to "automation issues".

The Federal Aviation Administration in the US logged the issue with the text declaring, “This ground stop is for all UAL main line flights only from all destinations to all destination[s]”.

The temporary glitch impacted on the company's shares, according to CNBC.

The airline tweeted that flights had been grounded to "ensure aircraft departed with proper dispatch information".

They also responded to waiting passengers on Twitter and said their flights would be taking off shortly.