Major Cyber Outage Grounds Flights Across the U.S.

This story is updating as more information becomes available.

Update 11 a.m. EST

The TSA is still warning travelers to get to the airport early, even as flight schedules recover, particularly if they are checking bags or are unable to check in on mobile or at home.

“Airline passengers should continue to give themselves plenty of time and arrive early,” it said in a message.

Cirium published updated data about the impact of international flights from the outage. As of 11 a.m., of the 110,000 scheduled commercial flights, there are 3,861 canceled flights globally and growing, representing 3.61% of flights.

Update 10 a.m. EST

WestJet said that it was “aware of the CrowdStrike IT outage impacting Microsoft products and continue to monitor the situation closely. At this time, there has been no direct impact to WestJet systems or operations and any flight cancellations across our network are unrelated to the outage.”

Update 9 a.m EST

In Canada, Porter Airlines has canceled all Friday morning flights until at least noon and is currently unable to rebook passengers. The airline alerted the public via a statement on its website, warning that further delays and cancellations are possible, and that “the rebooking process will take a period of time.” 

So far, Porter appears to be the only Canadian airline impacted by the tech issue. Toronto Pearson International Airport released a statement Friday about the IT issue, clarifying that Air Canada, WestJet, Sunwing, and Flair were all unaffected.

Update 8:30 a.m. EST:

According to data from aviation analytics company Cirium, here is how the outage is impacting flights as of 8 a.m. EST on Friday:

Of the more than 110,000 scheduled commercial flights, close to 2,700 have been canceled, including more than 1,000 flights departing from U.S. airports, which is “significantly higher” than a typical day. Of those U.S. flights, here is a breakdown by airline:

American Airlines: 6,026 scheduled, with 307 cancellations
Delta Air Lines: 5,002 scheduled, with 508 cancellations
United Airlines: 4,281 scheduled, with 137 cancellations
Southwest Airlines: 4,390 scheduled with 3 cancellations
Frontier Airlines: 650 scheduled, with 46 cancellations (highest among other carriers)

Only 62% of all flights worldwide on Friday had departed on time, as of that 8 a.m. update.

Delta Air Lines joined United in issuing a waiver for all impacted flights. Delta’s waiver covers all flights on Friday and allows for rebooking through June 24. American did the same shortly after. American’s waiver only includes 11 U.S. hubs and allows for rebooking through June 25.

The TSA confirmed that it was “aware” of the outages with airlines, but was still experiencing “no issues” with its systems or security checkpoints.

Original Coverage

A technical issue with an antivirus software provider was causing major issues with flights across the U.S. early on Friday morning in what some believe to be one of the largest cyber outages in history.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and several major airlines confirmed that they were working through a “technical issue” impacting IT systems that had forced the groundings. While things are back online and recovering, there is expected to be a carry-over effect impacting flights throughout Friday.

“The FAA is closely monitoring a technical issue impacting IT systems at U.S. airlines. Several airlines have requested FAA assistance with ground stops until the issue is resolved,” the FAA said in a statement at 6 a.m. EST.

According to FlightAware, almost every major U.S. airline had some issues with early morning flights, with American Airlines, United, and Delta all reporting delays into the hundreds as of 6:45 a.m. EST.  

Delta Air Lines, in its statement at around 4:30 a.m. EST, wrote that all its flights were paused as “we work through a vendor technology issue” and that it was notifying all customers via the Fly Delta app and text messages. The FAA issued an advisory for Delta flights that said all of its flights, “regardless of destination” were grounded because of the outage.

American, at just before 6 a.m. wrote in a message to its flyers that “earlier this morning, a technical issue with a vendor impacted multiple carriers, including American” and that as of 5 a.m. EST, “we have been able to safely re-establish our operation. We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience.” The FAA issued an advisory for American, too, which it lifted before 6 a.m.

United confirmed the same around 6:20 a.m., writing that “as we work to fully restore these systems, some flights are resuming. Many customers traveling today may experience delays.” United has issued a waiver for all flights impacted by the outage.

Travelers posting on social media reported issues checking in at counters across the country with computers down. Some reported that airline employees had resorted to manually checking travelers in, and even as computers came back online, lines built up as travelers tried to figure out their next steps. Travelers were not confirming any problems with airport security.

The reports were not only limited to the U.S., with travelers at airports in Amsterdam, Delhi, Dublin, London, Sydney, and more, all reporting problems.

Toronto Pearson, the busiest airport in Canada, was reporting some issues, but not nearly as much as major American airports.

“Flights continue to arrive and depart at the airport. As of now, Air Canada, Westjet, Sunwing and Flair operations have not been affected. We’re still seeing issues with major American airlines (Delta, American, United) as well as Porter Airlines. If you’re traveling or picking up loved ones this morning, please check the flight status with your airline,” it said.

CrowdStrike, the IT system provider that was reportedly having issues, confirmed that its customers were “impacted by a defect” in an update for Windows, the system that many of the affected airlines were using. Its CEO George Kurtz wrote on Friday morning that the outage was “not a security incident or cyberattack” and had been fixed.