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Computer problems are nothing new for airlines and airports, but the scale of Friday's outage is unprecedented in recent memory, with Delta and United among the hardest hit.
Gordon Smith and Peden Doma Bhutia, Skift
Airlines around the world are trying to recover from a catastrophic global IT outage, with companies in the United States, the United Kingdom, India and Australia among the worst affected.
Earlier Friday, Delta Air Lines “suspended” all flights across its global network, “due to a technology issue at a vendor.” United Airlines is among the other big names to have suspended all departures, with the issues “impacting its ability to access booking tools” to change passengers’ reservations. The carrier has since resumed some services.
Elsewhere, Canada Porter Airlines all departures cancelled until 12:00 p.m. ET, and Eurowings abandoned all German and UK domestic services until 15:00 CET.
According to aviation analytics firm Cirium, 4,295 flights were canceled worldwide on Friday and thousands more were delayed. That number is expected to rise throughout the day.
KLM said on X On Friday morning, computer problems had made “flight management impossible”, leading the Dutch national airline to “largely suspend its operations”.
What caused the outages?
The root cause of the problem appears to be a software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. George Kurtz, the company's CEO, said on X that “A defect detected in a single content update for Windows hosts” was causing disruption to customers.
Kurtz added that the issue had since been “identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed.” He said the outages were not caused by a security incident or cyberattack.
Although the technical issue has been resolved, the impact on affected airlines and airports is likely to continue throughout the day and could get worse before it gets better.
Microsoft had previously said it was taking “mitigation measures” after service issues, according to AFP news agency. Heathrow Airport is among the major organisations to have referred to Microsoft in his statement on the subject. Microsoft said the outage began around 6 p.m. ET (2200 GMT) Thursday.
What do the major airports say?
Flight tracking service Flightradar24 reported severe delays affecting arrivals and departures at major airports around the world on Friday. Heathrow, Las Vegas and Sydney are among the international hubs that have encountered serious problems.
Denver Airport confirmed that “multiple airlines are impacted” and said some of its parking lots were closed due to “ticketing issues.”
Spanish airport operator Aena said that all of its sites are now operational, but warned that many airlines are rescheduling flights for the rest of Friday.
Edinburgh Airport in Scotland is among those asking passengers due to fly today not to go to the terminal without first checking with their airline.
Meanwhile, Ryanair has advised all passengers to arrive at the airport at least three hours before departure as it is “experiencing disruptions to its network”.
Airlines and airports are no strangers to computer problemsOnline travel businesses are also vulnerable to shutdowns, with Expedia Group experiencing a global outage in May. a recent and highly publicized example. However, the depth and breadth of the current difficulties that hit the aviation sector on Friday are unprecedented in recent history.
Indian flights hit hard by computer outage
All airlines in India have reported outages, including Air India, Vistara, Indigo, Akasa Air, Air India Express and SpiceJet.
Carriers including IndiGo, SpiceJet and Akasa have reported technical issues affecting services like ticket booking and online check-in since 10:45 am local time on Friday.
Air India Group has requested its customers to plan their journey accordingly and allow adequate time for airport procedures.
Akasa Air announced on Friday that its online services such as booking, check-in and reservation management were temporarily unavailable. The airline has conducted manual check-ins and boardings at airports and asked passengers with immediate travel plans to arrive at the airport earlier than scheduled.
Adani Airports, which operates airports in major cities across India, said: “A global IT outage has impacted operations, affecting flights across the country. During this period, bookings, check-in, access to boarding passes and flights are likely to be affected…”
The situation in the Asia-Pacific region
Singapore's Changi Airport said the check-in process for some airlines was being handled manually. The airport said its ground staff were providing assistance to passengers, “especially those who are due to depart soon.”
Hong Kong airline Cathay Pacific said self-service check-in facilities at Hong Kong International Airport were unavailable. Sydney Airport said departures and arrivals were continuing but significant delays were expected, adding: “We have activated our contingency plans and deployed additional staff to our terminals.”
However, the chaos is not widespread for passengers. In a statement to Skift, a Dubai Airport spokesperson confirmed that the hub was “operating normally” after a disruption to check-in processes for some airlines at Terminals 1 and 2 in the morning.
“The affected airlines quickly adopted an alternative system, allowing normal check-in operations to resume quickly,” the spokesperson said.
The aviation industry wasn't alone in facing technical problems Friday. Outages and other computer failures were reported at banks, hospitals and other organizations around the world.
Performance of the airline sector stock index since the beginning of the year
What am I looking at? The performance of airline sector stocks within ST200The index includes companies listed on global stock exchanges, including network operators, low-cost carriers and other related companies.
The Skift Travel 200 (ST200) combines the financial performance of nearly 200 travel companies worth more than $1 trillion into a single number. See more airline industry financial performance.
