**Grounded Flights and Impacted Airlines**
The CrowdStrike outage that occurred on Friday morning caused a major disruption to computer systems running Microsoft Windows, resulting in grounded flights for major U.S. airlines such as United Airlines, American Airlines, and Delta Air Lines. According to FlightAware, approximately 7% of United Airlines flights, 8% of American Airlines flights, and 12% of Delta flights were canceled. This is a significant increase compared to the previous day’s cancellations. The widespread outage has had a ripple effect on flight operations, with nearly 3,000 flights canceled and over 28,000 delayed as of 11 a.m. ET.
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg addressed the issue, acknowledging that while the root cause of the outage has been identified, there will likely be ongoing impacts throughout the day due to the tightly scheduled nature of flights. He assured that there have been no indications of an impact on FAA operational systems or most systems within the U.S. Department of Transportation. However, shipping ports have also been affected, causing disruptions and delays in cargo handling.
**FAA’s Response and Airport Ground Stops**
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is closely monitoring the situation and providing assistance to airlines with ground stops until the issue is resolved. Ground stops are air traffic control measures that slow down or halt the flow of aircraft coming into a specific airport. The FAA stated that ground stops and delays will occur intermittently at various airports as airlines work through residual technology issues. Several airports, including Boston Logan International Airport, Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, Milwaukee Mitchell International, Charles M. Schulz–Sonoma County Airport, and LaGuardia Airport in New York, have closed to non-scheduled transient general aviation aircraft.
Certain airports, such as Atlanta International, Detroit Metropolitan, Minneapolis Saint-Paul, Salt Lake City International Airport, and Henry E. Rohlsen Airport in Saint Croix, are experiencing ground delays, which could also be linked to the CrowdStrike outage.
**Airlines’ Response and Affected Systems**
Virtually every airline, including global carriers like Qantas, Air France, Ryanair, Air Asia, and Air India, has experienced communication issues due to the CrowdStrike outage. United Airlines, for example, grounded all flights and experienced disruptions in various systems, including those used for calculating aircraft weight, checking in customers, and phone systems at call centers. Frontier Airlines and Spirit Airlines were also affected, with Spirit Airlines stating that it is currently unable to rebook guests whose travel plans have been disrupted.
American Airlines confirmed that a technical issue with a vendor impacted multiple carriers, including themselves. While they have been able to safely re-establish their operation, social media posts still show affected customers. Delta has resumed some flight departures but expects additional delays and cancellations throughout the day. They have offered to waive fare differences for customers who booked flights departing on Friday.
**Consumer Rights and Assistance**
Passengers who have been affected by delays and cancellations should familiarize themselves with their rights under U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) regulations. Tomasz Pawliszyn, CEO of air passenger rights company AirHelp, emphasized that passengers are entitled to assistance from the airline in such situations. This assistance can include rebooking on the next available flight and, in some cases, meal vouchers and accommodation if the delay extends overnight. Passengers should retain their boarding passes and receipts for any expenses incurred during the delay to facilitate potential reimbursement claims.
**Limited Impact on Trains and Auto Industry**
Trains, including Amtrak, have largely remained unaffected by the CrowdStrike outage. However, some train time management apps, such as the MTA app for New York City’s public transit system, are down. Washington, D.C.’s Metro public transit system reported that all Metrorail stations opened on time and services are running as scheduled.
The auto industry has experienced only mild effects, with automakers GM and Ford stating that their manufacturing operations were not affected, and their consumer-facing apps and services are working normally. Some automotive suppliers, like Magna, have experienced varying levels of operational disruptions. However, Magna’s global IT team and providers have been working to expedite recovery and ensure continuity of service.
CrowdStrike’s CEO, George Kurtz, confirmed that the outage was caused by a software update defect for Windows hosts. He ruled out a cyberattack and assured that a fix was being rolled out. Mac and Linux hosts were not affected by the outage.