Crowds gather at Suvarnabhumi Airport as a combination of global IT disruptions caused by a Microsoft outage and CrowdStrike IT issues affect users, in Bangkok, Thailand, on July 19, 2024.
Miley Ostentan | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Several airlines halted flights on Friday and others warned of delays and service disruptions as an unprecedented IT outage affected operations worldwide.
Early Friday morning, cybersecurity giant Crowdstrike There was a lot of disruption related to technology updates, with organizations including Microsoft scrambling to restore apps and services used by millions of businesses.
Flight information and check-in monitors at airports around the world are displaying the so-called “Blue Screen of Death.” Microsoft System error. Images shared on social media showed a whiteboard displaying flight information at Belfast International Airport in Northern Ireland, alongside a handwritten boarding pass for India’s IndiGo airline.
“It seems that we are facing the first real global blackout… The disruption is affecting not only private users but especially large institutions such as banks (including central banks), stock exchanges and airports, paralyzing their operations during the peak holiday season and causing disruptions in many other sectors as well,” Grzegorz Droz, market analyst at Konotokia, said in emailed comments.
As of 5 p.m. ET on Friday, more than 38,000 flights were delayed around the world, including about 9,200 delayed flights within or to or from the U.S., according to FlightAware data. More than 4,200 flights were canceled, including about 2,650 to and from the U.S.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Streets” on Friday that he expects travel delays to clear up and “get closer to normal” by Saturday.
“The problem has been identified. The question is whether there will be any ripple or knock-on effects as we get everything back on track with our network,” Buttigieg said. “These flights operate in such a tight, back-to-back pattern that the effects could be felt throughout the day, even after the underlying cause is resolved.”
On July 19, 2024, a global IT outage will affect airports around the world.
Kevin Brueninger | CNBC
Airlines across Europe, the Middle East, the Americas and Asia issued updates outlining the extent of the impact to their flight schedules and services across the board, and advised passengers to check the status of their flights.
“The FAA is working closely with airlines to resume normal operations. There will be intermittent ground stoppages and delays at various airports as airlines address remaining technical issues,” the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement at 10:22 a.m. ET.
American Airlines The airline said it was “safely resuming operations” as of 5 a.m. ET, adding that it “anticipates some delays and cancellations to today’s flight schedule.”
Delta and United Both airlines have resumed some flights but said they expect delays and cancellations through Friday, and all three have offered waivers to allow customers to change their travel plans.
Colby Black, 45, took the delay in stride, even though he wasn’t sure when his rescheduled flight to Los Angeles would take off.
“The board says 8 a.m. but on the app it says 9 a.m., so I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Black said of the flight that was originally scheduled to depart at 6 a.m. “I’m just tired. I want to sleep,” said Black, who woke up at 3 a.m. “But other than that, well, that happens.”
Travelers wait at check-in counters at Berlin airport as an IT outage disrupts services for domestic and international airlines on July 19, 2024 in Schonefeld, Germany.
Sean Gallup | Getty Images News | Getty Images
In Europe, Dutch airline KLM said its IT problems had been “almost completely resolved” and air traffic to and from Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport could “restart fully” after most KLM operations were suspended in the morning.
But the company added that many flights had been delayed or cancelled and disruptions would continue into the evening and weekend, with further cancellations possible.
KLM’s Partner Airlines Air France The airline said late on Friday afternoon that only some flights to Amsterdam and Berlin were affected during the day, but that delays could not be ruled out, and that operations had “returned to normal on all routes”.
Germany’s Lufthansa The airline said the global outage had a “small impact,” with routes to Berlin, Amsterdam and Zurich hit hardest. German low-cost airline Eurowings, part of the group, said most domestic flights had been cancelled and that it planned to operate around 80% of its flights.
Earlier in the morning, Swiss air traffic control service provider Skyguide said it had reduced traffic capacity in Switzerland by 30% as a precautionary measure in the wake of the disruptions.
British Airways’ busiest days
British airlines British Airways and Virgin Atlantic both said they expected some disruption to flights on Friday.
Aviation analytics firm Cirium said it expects Friday, July 19 to be the busiest day for flights this year, with 3,214 daily departures, the highest number since October 2019.
As of 5pm London time, 4,295 flights had been cancelled worldwide, representing 3.9% of all scheduled flights worldwide, according to Cirium.
London’s Gatwick and Heathrow airports said they were continuing to deal with the problem and expected delays. Gatwick said the issue affected “some airline check-in systems, including e-gates, and security.”
Self-check-in systems were temporarily suspended at many airports on Friday, including Taiwan’s Taoyuan International Airport, Singapore’s Changi Airport and Hong Kong International Airport.
Mainland Chinese airlines such as Air China and China Southern Airlines were not affected because they use a different system, Reuters reported, citing state media.
—CNBC’s Kevin Breuninger, Leslie Josephs and Ece Yildirim and NBC News’ Carlo Ungerer contributed reporting.
Correction: This story has been updated to correct a time statement.
