The CrowdStrike outage, which occurred early on Friday morning, took down computers running Microsoft Windows and caused flight cancellations around the world.
Major US airlines, including United Airlines, American Airlines and Delta Air Lines, have suspended operations around the world. Seven percent of United's flights, 8% of American Airlines' flights and 12% of Delta's flights have been cancelled, according to FlightAware, which tracks cancellations in real time. By comparison, each airline canceled 3%, 4% and 1% of its flights, respectively, on Thursday.
As of 11 a.m. ET, nearly 3,000 flights had been canceled today, bringing the total number of delayed flights to nearly 28,000, according to the FlightAware tracker. Not all of these cancellations and delays are related to the CrowdStrike outage.
Referring to the widespread outages in an interview with CNBC, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said that while the issues had been identified, the Transportation Department expected a “ripple or chain effect” to continue into today as airlines worked to get their systems back on track.
“These flights are so tight and back-to-back that the impacts will be felt throughout the day, even after the root cause has been resolved,” Buttigieg said. “In terms of the FAA's operational systems, like air traffic control, and most systems within the Department of Transportation, we're not seeing any indication of impacts in our own systems, but in terms of the airlines themselves, we certainly expect to see further impacts.”
Buttigieg also pointed out that ports were being affected by problems with truck gates. Local news in California reported that the power outages at the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles had left hundreds of trucks stranded waiting to load or unload cargo, causing disruptions and delays to shipping.
of Federal Aviation Administration Posted on X The company said in a Facebook post that it was closely monitoring the issue and that multiple airlines have requested assistance with ground stops, an air traffic control measure that slows or stops the flow of aircraft landing at a particular airport, until the problem is resolved.
“We continue to work closely with airlines to resume normal operations,” the FAA wrote. “Ground stoppages and delays will occur intermittently at various airports while airlines address remaining technical issues. Please contact your airline for more information.”
According to the FAA's website, airports including Boston Logan International Airport, Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport, Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport and New York's LaGuardia Airport are closed to “non-scheduled, transient general aviation aircraft or flights not on a scheduled flight schedule (such as charter or private flights) and pass-through aircraft not based at the airport.”
Airports including Atlanta International Airport, Detroit Metropolitan Airport, Minneapolis-Saint Paul Airport, Salt Lake City International Airport and Henry E. Rohlsen Airport on St. Croix are experiencing ground delays for unspecified reasons that may be related to the CrowdStrike outage.
Airlines Respond to CrowdStrike Outage
Virtually all U.S. airlines experienced communications disruptions due to the CrowdStrike outage, including several global airlines such as: Qantas, Air France, Ryanair, AirAsia, Air India others.
The FAA's Air Traffic Control System Command Center said all United Airlines flights, regardless of destination or submarine, had been grounded due to communications issues. Post to X At about 9 a.m. ET, the airline said it would resume some flights but that schedule disruptions may continue, and it issued special waivers to help customers change their travel plans.
United Airlines also posted on its website that flights to and from the following airports were affected today: Cleveland, Ohio (CLE); Newark, New Jersey (EWR); Frankfurt, Germany (FRA); Guam (GUM); Honolulu, Hawaii (HNL); Washington DC (IAD); Houston, Texas (IAH); Los Angeles, California (LAX); London, England (LHR); Orlando, Florida (MCO); Chicago, Illinois (ORD) and San Francisco, California (SFO).
A United Airlines spokesperson told TechCrunch that the issue affected many separate systems, including aircraft weight calculations, customer check-in and the airline's call center phone system.
Frontier Airlines is an American ultra-low-cost airline to be influencedHowever, it appears to have resumed normal operations or is in the process of doing so. Spirit Airlines, another low-cost carrier, said it has suspended operations. Affects reservation systems and flight operations.
“Due to the power outage, we are currently unable to rebook customers whose travel plans have been disrupted. We will assist these customers as soon as possible once our vendors restore service,” Spirit Airlines posted on Facebook.
American Airlines also confirmed that a technical issue with a vendor affected multiple airlines, including American Airlines. Said As of 5 a.m. ET, the airline was able to “safely resume operations,” but current social media posts still show customers whose flights have been canceled or continue to be delayed.
Delta Air Lines said some flights had resumed as of 7:49 a.m. ET, but expected more delays and cancellations on Friday. Delta said it would waive the fare difference for customers booked for flights departing on Friday.
According to the FAA's Ground Delay Alert, Delta flights departing into Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport were experiencing an average delay of 374 minutes as of this writing. The delays are affecting departures on 30 airlines across the U.S. and Canada.
Citi analyst Stephen Trent said he did not believe there would be any penalties for cancelling flights as the outage was not the airline's own fault.
“As long as significant improvements continue throughout the day, we do not expect today's disruption to have a material impact on our revenue,” Trent said.
Consumer rights
Most airlines that have experienced delays or cancellations are working on ways to help customers rebook their flights. Airlines including United, American and Delta are waiving the fare difference when customers book the new flight. Airlines also told the Transportation Department that they would provide meals to customers whose flights were delayed by three hours due to issues within their control and offer hotel rooms to customers who have to wait overnight for the new flight, according to Reuters.
Tomasz Pawliczyn, CEO of airline passenger rights company AirHelp, said passengers affected by delays and cancellations should understand their rights and know what options they have during disruptions.
“While this incident is outside the control of the airline or airport, passengers have certain rights under U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) regulations,” Pawlyshyn told TechCrunch. “Passengers are entitled to assistance from the airline, which may include being rebooked on the next available flight and/or being provided with meal vouchers or lodging if the delay lasts overnight.”
Pawlyszyn noted that the “right to care” applies to all delays of more than two hours, and he encouraged passengers to keep all boarding passes and receipts for any expenses incurred during the delay, including food, drink and accommodation, in case they need to claim reimbursement.
CrowdStrike outage has little impact on trains
Most trains, including Amtrak, appear to be unaffected by the outage, but some apps that manage train times are down. New York City's public transportation agency, the MTA, is continuing to operate, but the MTA app, which shows subway and bus schedules and route planning, is down.
However, the Washington DC subway system to be influenced The power outage caused service to be halted. As of 5:45 a.m. ET, all Metrorail stations were open and running as scheduled. Buses were also running as scheduled.
The automotive industry is only slightly affected
The outage affected businesses around the world, including retailers, brokerages and media companies.
Automakers GM and Ford told TechCrunch that production was not affected by the outage and that the consumer apps owners use to unlock, lock and manage their vehicles were functioning normally. OnStar, the GM subsidiary that handles in-car communications, including emergency services, was also functioning normally.
Several auto parts suppliers, including Magna, were also affected by the outage, with the company saying it was experiencing “varying levels of business interruptions.”
“Our dedicated IT team is working closely with all affected providers to expedite recovery and ensure continuity of service across all locations,” Magna spokeswoman Tracy Furst said in an email. “We are also in close contact with our customers and suppliers to mitigate any potential impact.”
Furst added that thanks to the quick response of the company's global IT team and providers, the majority of operations are now up and running. “It's still expected at this point, but we're getting closer to stabilizing,” he said.
CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz acknowledged that a flaw in a software update for Windows hosts was the cause of the outage, but denied the possibility of a cyberattack, adding that the company was rolling out a fix and that Mac and Linux hosts were not affected.
This story is developing and was originally published at 8:22am PST, so check back for updates.