US, International Air Travel Cancellations Still Happening Following Microsoft Outage

UPDATE: July 20, 2024, at 10:15 a.m. ET

The worldwide internet technology outage from Friday morning is still affecting us.

Particularly the airlines, both domestically in the United States and internationally.

According to Cirium, an aviation analytics company, almost two percent of the 104,000 flights scheduled for today, Saturday, July 20, have been delayed or canceled as of 8 a.m.

Probably through sheer volume, the U.S. leads that list. It is followed by India, Spain, the United Kingdom and Italy.

Although technically a Microsoft issue, the problem is being blamed on a software update by a cybersecurity company. It affected airlines, other transportation outlets, credit cards, banking statements, medical records and more.

Flight-tracking website FlightAware reports over 18,000 flights have been delayed and nearly 1,500 flights canceled Saturday morning. 

UPDATE: July 19, 2024, at 1:25 p.m. ET

Airlines around the world continue to deal with the repercussions of a devastating IT outage that has resulted in tens of thousands of flight delays and cancellations.

As of 1:25 p.m. ET, flight-tracking website FlightAware reports that nearly 32,000 Friday flights have been delayed, with another 3,650 having been canceled. The latter figure includes more than 2,260 flights within, into or out of the U.S.

Carriers continue to encourage travelers to be patient and to check their flight status with their airline prior to arriving to the airport.  

Airlines, including American Airlines and United Airlines, among others, have issued waives to assist impacted customers.

UPDATE: July 19, 2024, at 9:20 a.m. ET

Delta Air Lines resumed some flight departures after a
vendor technology issue impacted several airlines and businesses around the
world. That issue necessitated a pause in Delta’s global flight schedule this
morning while it was addressed.

Additional delays and cancellations are expected Friday.

Delta has issued a travel waiver for all customers who have
booked flights departing Friday, July 19. It allows customers to manage their
own travel changes via delta.com and the Fly Delta app.

Original Text

Travelers around the world have been impacted by a global IT
outage that caused delays, cancellations and problems for airports and airlines.

According to Reuters.com,
Microsoft officials revealed that some users experienced issues accessing various
Office 365 apps and services due to a “configuration change in a portion
of our Azure-backed workloads.”

Cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike told Reuters that the “defect”
was found in a “single content update” for Microsoft Windows hosts. As a
result, over 18,000 worldwide flights have faced delays on Friday morning, with
another 1,655 being canceled, as of 7:45 a.m. ET, according to Flight Aware.

Several major carriers in the United States have reported technical
issues and were forced to issue temporary ground stops on Friday morning due to
“communication problems,” including American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and
United Airlines.

To combat the IT issues, airports and airlines are advising
travelers to check the status of their flights online before arriving at the
airport and, if their flight is still scheduled, arrive earlier than planned to
deal with any potential delays.

Some international airports have reverted to a manual
check-in process to avoid flight operation interruptions, but many facilities
reported being back online a short time later. The Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) said it was “closely monitoring the situation.”

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