As airlines struggle to recover from Friday's tech meltdown, thousands of flights have been canceled or delayed.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reported that several major U.S. carriers, including American Airlines, United Airlines, and Delta Air Lines, issued ground stops early Friday due to communication problems, causing a ripple effect that continued into Saturday. By 3 pm Saturday, FlightAware recorded over 1,600 cancellations and more than 4,900 delays. Delta and United Airlines were among the hardest hit, with 821 and 379 cancellations respectively.
The cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike attributed the outage to a defect in a Microsoft Windows update. “Today was not a security or cyber incident. Our customers remain fully protected," Crowdstrike CEO George Kurtz clarified on X. "We understand the gravity of the situation and are deeply sorry for the inconvenience and disruption. We are working with all impacted customers to ensure that systems are back up and they can deliver the services their customers are counting on."
Airlines rely heavily on coordinated schedules managed by air traffic control, and the disruption of just a few minutes can have significant repercussions throughout the day. United Airlines explained, "The issue affected many separate systems, such as those used for calculating aircraft weight, checking in customers, and phone systems in our call centers."
Flights resumed on Friday morning after an overnight pause, but ongoing delays and cancellations are expected as airline crews and equipment remain out of place. Jon Haass, a professor of cyber intelligence and security at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Prescott, said, “It’s not just one piece of software anymore, it’s an entire system.”
The Department of Transportation (DOT) considers the delays and cancellations caused by the IT outage to be "controllable" by the airlines. This means airlines are responsible for upholding commitments to customers regarding rebooking, hotel, and meal vouchers. Each airline's policy is outlined on the DOT customer service dashboard.
Airlines have issued waivers to provide flexibility to affected passengers. Delta allowed all passengers traveling Friday to rebook their flights, while United offered a waiver for select airports, covering nearly all of the airline's flights. Spirit Airlines also issued a waiver for customers booked to fly Friday or Saturday, allowing them to change their flights at no additional charge.
