Pic Credit: George Nikitin/AP Photo

There are many things that can go wrong with computers these days as it is normal and everyday life.

As with a washing machine, tumble dryer or laptop continued use can cause technical faults which are not anyone’s fault but just happen.

This is the same for touch screen kiosks after a computer glitch left planes nationwide grounded and passengers experiencing delays for the whole weekend in a chaos-filled nightmare.

United Airlines suffered a computer break on 18th June 2011 which resulted in flights being delayed for hours or cancelled altogether, stranding thousands of travellers.

The airline officials said the computer issue began at about 7:10pm causing many holidaymakers to sleep overnight at the airport’s various terminals across America over Father’s Day weekend.

The flight mess was blamed on a network connectivity issue for knocking out its computers for at least five hours.

Alexandria Marren, Senior Vice President of system operations control for United Airlines, said in a statement: “While we will be experiencing some residual effect on our flight operations throughout the weekend, United is committed to restoring normal operations as soon as possible.”

The carrier apologised for the disruption and rebooked passengers.

Major airports affected included Chicago, San Francisco and Denver where long queues of passengers were pictured. Just in Los Angeles International Airport alone the kiosk fault disrupted flights for some 3,000 travellers.

Hundreds of touch screen units were closed and so boarding passed couldn’t be issued and bags couldn’t be checked.

Protouch helped Birmingham Airport fast track its passengers without any technical glitches with our express lane kiosks. Its new kiosk features a 19” touch screen, chip and pin, coin and note acceptor, change dispenser and receipt printer with a branded laminate; and give passengers the choice whether to be processed as per normal or to buy a priority pass from the kiosk.

Trust Europe’s number one manufacturer and distributor of touch screen technology to deploy kiosks that are fully efficient; and if something should go wrong our dedicated in-house IT Support department and network of field engineers offer support services for our entire range of kiosks and touch screen solutions. This includes a first class helpdesk, return to base repairs and flexible on-site support agreements.

Click here to find out more about installing a kiosk in your airport.