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DALLAS — A widespread IT failure has affected airlines around the world, causing significant disruptions to flight schedules and leaving passengers stranded. The issue is related to cybersecurity company Crowdstrike, with multiple carriers reporting technical difficulties in the past four hours.
Early this morning, a CrowdStrike upgrade caused computers running Windows to crash and display the "Blue Screen of Death," with users around the world unable to restart their machines, according to a slew of reports.
Specifically, the update glitch caused significant interruption in Microsoft's cloud services, which in turn caused a wave of global aircraft cancellations and delays around the globe. Experts call the largest IT outage in history, with some even referring to the massive Microsoft outage as a "digital pandemic."
Major U.S. airlines including United Airlines (UA), Delta Air Lines (DL), American Airlines (AA), and LCCs Frontier Airlines (F9) and Allegiant Air (G4) have all grounded flights due to the outage.
European carriers such as Ryanair (FR) and KLM (KL) have also been affected by the interruption, as have Indian airlines IndiGo (6E), Akasa Airlines (QP), and SpiceJet (SG).
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is closely monitoring the situation. In a statement, the FAA said, "Several airlines have requested FAA assistance with ground stops until the issue is resolved."
The IT failure domino effect hit not only airlines, but also banks, businesses, hospital and media outlets around the world.
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Airlines Throughout the Outage
Frontier said it had canceled more than 150 flights accounting for about 20% of cancelations in the U.S., while Spirit (NK) customers have waited over four hours due to the ground stop that began last night.
Delta Air Lines issued a statement saying, "Delta has paused its global flight schedule this morning due to a vendor technology issue that is impacting several airlines and businesses around the world. We are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible to resume operations."
United Airlines confirmed the problem, stating, "A third-party outage is impacting computer systems, including at United and many other organizations worldwide. As we work to fully restore these systems, some flights are resuming. Many customers traveling today may experience delays."
American Airlines reported that it has been able to safely re-establish operations as of 5:00 a.m. ET, but apologized to customers for the inconvenience. Even Porter Airlines (PD) is "cancelling flights until 12 p.m. ET, for July 19, 2024, due to third-party systems outages affecting global industries."
Finnair (AY), Qantas (QF), Turkish Airlines (TK), Singapore Airlines (SQ), Eurowings (EW) and Sun Country Airlines (SY) have also reported major operational disruptions.
As usual, passengers were advised to check their flight status and contact their airline for the latest information. Some carriers are issuing travel waivers to allow customers to manage changes to their itineraries. Other are still reeling back from the disruptions, a field day for insurers all over, we assume.
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The Quirks of IT Outages in Aviation
Remember when Southwest Airlines (WN) canceled 15,200 flights between December 22 and December 29, 2022? The airline's the 20-year-old technology caused the carrier to lose track of its flight crews.
Because the majority of crew scheduling was done by hand, crew members who could have been working waited for the airline to make hotel reservations in order to comply with federal regulations.
We can recall that WN pilots and flight attendants were not able to get changes in their schedules from the airline due to staffing shortages and overwork on the phone system. This impacted thousands of WN flights throughout North America and caused a domino effect.
Today, WN is still operating on Windows 3.11, according to digitaltrends.com. which explains why it is flying without major issues despite the global IT outage. Windows 3.11 is a 32-year-old operating system also used by UPS (5X) and FedEx (FX).
Needless to day, the Windows 3.11, or Windows 95, as some have said, aversion is a fluke; WN needs to continue updating its IT systems, something which the airline's Bob Jordan promised he carry out.
Preliminary Data
According to data from aviation analytics company Cirium compiled this morning by our friend Mike Arnot from Juliett Alpha:
- GLOBALLY: There are around 110,000 scheduled commercial flights today, Friday July 19. As of 6:00 AM Eastern Time, there are 1,390 cancelled flights globally, and growing.
- US MARKET: There are more than 27,000 scheduled flights today from the U.S. carrying up to 3.7M passengers — including international departures. In the U.S domestic market (ie. US to US flying), there are more than 24,000 scheduled flights today, carrying up to 3.2M passengers. As of 6:00 AM Eastern, there are 512 canceled flights today from U.S. origins, approximately 1.91%, which is significantly higher than usual at this point in the day.
- GERMANY: 4,386 flights scheduled to and from Germany, with up to 791K passengers. There are 92 flights canceled departing from Germany so far. This does not include inbound flights to Germany.
- FRANCE: 3,630 flights scheduled to and from France, with up to 666K passengers. There are 28 flights canceled departing from France so far. This does not include inbound flights to France.
- ITALY: 4,386 flights scheduled to and from Italy, with up to 730K passengers. There are 45 flights canceled departing from Italy so far. This does not include inbound flights to Italy.
- INDIA: 3,652 flights scheduled originating from Indian destinations, with 56 cancellations so far. This does not include inbound flights to India.
- CANADA: 3549 flights scheduled today departing from Canada, with up 444K passengers. 21 flights are cancelled departing from Canada so far. This does not include inbound flights to Canada.
As for the IT culprits in all of this, Microsoft noted in an update that its "services are still seeing continuous improvements while we continue to take mitigation actions."
George Kurts, President & CEO CrowdStrike, took to X to say, "CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed."
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8 AM EST Update
- GLOBALLY: As per Cirium data, there are around 110,000 scheduled commercial flights today, Friday July 19. As of 8:00 AM Eastern Time, there are 2,691 cancelled flights globally, and growing.
- US MARKET: There are more than 27,000 scheduled flights today from the U.S. carrying up to 3.7M passengers — including international departures. In the U.S domestic market (ie. U.S. to U.S. flying), there are more than 24,000 scheduled flights today, carrying up to 3.2M passengers.
As of 8am Eastern Time there are 1,017 canceled flights today from U.S. origins — approximately 4.2% — which is significantly higher than usual at this point in the day. (That number is growing; it was 512 cancellations at 6am Eastern today.)
Airline-specific Data
Domestic and International flights (combined) from the U.S.:
- AA: 6,026 scheduled, with 307 cancellations
- DL: 5,002 scheduled, with 508 cancellations
- UA: 4,281 scheduled, with 137 cancellations
- WN: 4,390 scheduled with 3 cancellations
- F9: 650 scheduled, with 46 cancellations (highest among other carriers)
International Flights from the U.S.
- AA: 415 scheduled with 0 cancellations
- DL: 267 scheduled with 29 cancellations
- UA: 384 scheduled with 13 cancellations
On-Time Departures are impacted so far, with only 62% of flights departing on-time so far today (within 14:59 of the scheduled push back time from gate.)
11 AM EST Update
GLOBALLY
- Approximately 110,000 commercial flights scheduled for Friday, July 19
- As of 11:00 AM ET, 3,861 flights (3.61%) cancelled globally, with numbers increasing
US MARKET
- Over 27,000 flights scheduled from the U.S. (including international departures)
- Over 24,000 domestic U.S. flights scheduled
- As of 11:00 AM ET, 1,692 flights (6.3%) cancelled in the U.S.
- 37% of U.S. flights departed with delays of 30 minutes or more
Airline-specific Data
- DL: 15.35% of 5,002 flights cancelled
- AA: 6.39% of 6,026 flights cancelled
- UA: 8.39% of 4,281 flights cancelled
- SY: 46.55% of 116 flights cancelled
- F9: 7.69% of 650 flights cancelled
- NK: 3.11% of 837 flights cancelled
- AS: 0.31% of 1,299 flights cancelled
- WN: 0.07% of 4,390 flights cancelled
On-time performance for most airlines is significantly below normal levels, with DL (usually at least 80% on-time) showing only 20.83% of flights arriving within 15 minutes of schedule.
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3 PM EST Update
GLOBALLY
- Approximately 110,000 scheduled commercial flights
- 5,117 flights cancelled (4.62% of total)
US MARKET
- Over 27,000 scheduled flights (including international departures)
- Potential to carry up to 3.7 million passengers
- Domestic flights: Over 24,000 scheduled, potentially carrying up to 3.2 million passengers
- 2,382 flights cancelled in the U.S. (8.9% of scheduled flights)
Airline-specific Data
- DL has the highest cancellation rate at 23.51%
- Most airlines are experiencing significant delays and cancellations
- DL's on-time arrival rate (A14%) is only 14.66%, far below its typical 80% or higher
Overall US Flight Status
- Only 47% of flights have departed on time
- 57% of flights have departed with a delay of 30 minutes or more
This data indicates significant disruptions in air travel, particularly in the U.S. market, with high cancellation rates and widespread delays across multiple airlines.
The situation is worse than the Holiday 2022 disruption, which saw about 23% of flights cancelled on December 23, 2022. This developing story will be updated as more information becomes available.
Featured image: Brandon Farris/Airways
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