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Additional flight cancellations are expected through the weekend as airlines slowly recover. Global technology outages Thousands of passengers are stranded at airports.
More than 5,400 flights into, out of and within the United States were canceled and more than 21,300 were delayed on Friday and Saturday. Flight AwareMore than 600 flights had already been cancelled on Sunday morning, with a third day of disruption at airports possible.
problem Expanding beyond the airportBusinesses, government agencies, health and emergency services, banks, schools and universities around the world have suffered operational shutdowns and service disruptions as a result of the pandemic. Faulty software updates For Microsoft Windows operating systems, issued by cybersecurity company CrowdStrike an expert told CNN..
Glenn Gerstell, a former general counsel at the National Security Agency, told CNN on Saturday that the outage “essentially turned computers around the world into bricks.”
“In terms of overall impact, this is probably going to be the largest single computer incident,” Gerstell said. “It may not be about the number of computers, but the impact on people’s lives.”
CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz Apologized We told our customers that a fix had been distributed, Experts say It will be a long process to restore the system to its original state.
The outage affected an estimated 8.5 million Windows devices, which represents less than 1% of all Windows machines. Saturday Blog Post “Although a small percentage, the broader economic and societal impact reflects CrowdStrike’s use by companies that operate many essential services,” Microsoft said.
Major airlines say services are being restored but that further delays and disruptions are possible.
Most of United’s systems have been restored from Friday’s outage, the airline said. It said in a statementMore than 400 United Airlines flights were canceled Saturday and more than 200 were canceled Sunday. Flight Aware.
United Airlines said in a statement that “most of our systems have recovered from the global third-party software issue, but we may continue to experience operational disruptions, including flight delays or cancellations.”
Delta Air Lines said in a report Saturday that it was “continuing to restore operations” after suspending flights on Friday due to the outage. morning Update: Still, more than 1,000 Delta flights were canceled Saturday and more than 200 were canceled Sunday.
“Additional cancellations are expected as some of Delta’s technology continues to recover from a vendor-issued issue Friday morning,” the update said.
American Airlines was also affected, with the airline statement Allegiant Air said Friday that it was “able to safely resume operations” and had “issued travel waivers for customers affected by the vendor’s technology issue earlier this morning.” Saturday’s statement The company said it had “resume[ed]normal operations” after the outage but was working through a backlog of messages from customers and troubleshooting its programs and platform.
parable Updates rolled back for flawed computersBut that’s not a quick fix for airlines, which have computers at thousands of gates that need to be rebooted manually individually, David Kennedy, co-founder of cybersecurity firm Binary Defense, told CNN on Saturday.
“It’s not as simple as just restarting it. There are a lot of steps and complexities involved,” Kennedy said. “Airports and hubs just don’t have the manpower to do it.”
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of U.S. Department of Transportation The airline said on Friday that it has determined that flight delays and cancellations caused by system failures are “controllable” and “the responsibility of the airline.” In such cases, airlines ” Commitment to customer service.”
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on social media post Saturday said he had received reports that some airlines were only offering flight credits to passengers on canceled flights.
“Let me be clear: if your flight is canceled and you don’t rebook, you are entitled to an immediate refund,” Buttigieg said.
Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images
Passengers wait in the check-in area at Gatwick Airport in Horley, south London, on July 20, 2024, after some flights were cancelled or delayed.
Passengers queueing at airports due to cancelled or delayed flights are frustrated, as some miss out on important life events like weddings, funerals and birthdays.
Many flights were still canceled or delayed at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport on Saturday, and long lines of passengers waited for assistance.
Delta Airlines passenger Catalina Villarreal described the scenes as “panic. Chaos. Frustration. Hunger.”
Villarreal expressed frustration over what he said was a lack of information from airlines.
“We’ve had three cancellations. We’ve checked in for every flight three times. And now I have two bags somewhere at the airport and who knows how long it’s going to take,” Villarreal said. “So they told me to come tomorrow or Monday.”
Thousands of people packed into airports across the country are facing the same anxiety as they wait for answers.
“We were supposed to be going to California for my mother’s wedding,” Richard Whitfield, of Pasco County, Florida, told CNN on Saturday. Whitfield and his partner, Jonathan Shade, left Tampa on Thursday but missed their connecting flight in Atlanta due to bad weather, which delayed the landing and forced them to refuel in Tallahassee.
After multiple delays to their rescheduled flight on Friday, the couple decided to cancel their trip and fly home, but a flight back to Tampa wasn’t available Friday night, so they spent a second night in an airport hotel. They weren’t able to get vouchers from Delta for either stay.
“[Richard]was on hold for 24 hours,” Shade told CNN. “When he finally got his number it was 2,001.”
Two hours later, Richards was 2,300th in Delta’s virtual customer service queue, Shade said.
Whitfield told CNN that the whole incident had an impact on him.
“To me, it’s the domino effect it has on humanity and everything we need to survive: food, sleep, water, shelter,” he said.
After 48 hours in Atlanta, they found a flight back to Tampa for Saturday evening, but they’re hoping the flight isn’t delayed or canceled. For now, Shade and Whitfield say all the couple can do is wait and “have a good drink.”
Another traveler at Boston Logan International Airport was traveling to Fort Lauderdale to celebrate his father’s 96th birthday.
“My flight this morning was canceled. I was supposed to be flying to Fort Lauderdale, they diverted me to West Palm Beach, I got to the airport and it was canceled. No notice, no notification, nothing,” Charlotte Yeh told CNN affiliate. Swift Saturday.
Some passengers at Boston’s airport were angry that their summer travel plans had been ruined.
“We booked our trip to Las Vegas quite some time in advance,” Mark Forbes told WFXT. “Since our flight the next day was at 6pm on Monday and we were only planning on staying in Las Vegas for four nights, we had to rebook our trip.”
Carol Edwards said both her Friday and Saturday flights were canceled and her next flight wasn’t available until Monday.
“There’s nothing we can do because we have so many plans to visit family, go out to eat, see friends, party,” she told WFXT.
