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A screen at an airport which is out of order is pictured following a global IT outage in New York City, the United States, on July 19, 2024. — Picture by REUTERS

Global cyber outage hits air travel, leaving passengers in limbo

EDINBURGH/MADRID/BALTIMORE, July 20 — Air passengers worldwide faced delays, flight cancellations and headaches checking in as airports and airlines were caught up in a massive IT outage that has affected numerous industries ranging from banks to media companies.

A software update by global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike triggered systems problems for Microsoft customers, which led to hours of delays for airlines using their software. Some travelers were issued handwritten boarding passes with the software inoperative.

All told, out of more than 110,000 scheduled commercial flights yesterday, 5,000 have been cancelled globally, with more expected, according to global aviation analytics firm Cirium. By comparison, 2,000 flights were cancelled on Thursday (July 18) before the software issues.

The aviation sector is particularly sensitive to interruptions due to its reliance on closely coordinated schedules run by air traffic control. Delays can throw off airport and airline schedules for the rest of the day.

United States (US) carrier Delta Air Lines was one of the hardest- hit, with 20 per cent of its flights cancelled, according to flight tracking service FlightAware.

Carriers including Ryanair, United, and Air India said they had faced delays or disruptions across the US, Asia, and Europe.

“Nobody was around to tell us where we could check in when we arrived … so different groups queued in different places and then, in the end, someone, after a bottleneck of people was formed, told us to come here,” said Mexican tourist Ana Rodriguez, while waiting for a flight in Madrid’s Barajas Airport.

Even airlines that were not directly affected said they would have to grapple with delays due to the global nature of the disruption.

Transportation system issues appeared to be resolved and would hopefully be back to normal by today, said US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, adding that the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) did not appear affected.

Flight Disruptions

Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport, one of the world’s busiest and a hub for Delta Air had the worst disruptions globally, according to FlightRadar24, with 36 per cent of scheduled departures cancelled.

Delta resumed some flight departures but warned of additional delays and cancellations. FAA data showed Delta’s operations in Atlanta, Minneapolis, and New York were still affected. The airline said customers who had flights cancelled were issued travel waivers.

United said the disruption affected systems used for calculating aircraft weight, check-ins, and its call centres.

In Europe, Spanish carrier Iberia said it had managed to avoid flight cancellations. Ryanair had cancelled two per cent of its flights, while 38 per cent of its scheduled flights were delayed.

An aeroplane is parked on the tarmac as people wait for their flights following a global IT outage at BER airport in Berlin, Germany, on July 19, 2024. — Picture by REUTERS

Handwritten Boarding Passes

The outage sparked chaos for European passengers on one of the busiest travel days of the year, as schools broke up for the holiday.

In Edinburgh, a Reuters witness said boarding-pass scanners carried a “server offline message,” with the airport saying passengers should not travel to the airport without first checking their flight status. Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, Berlin Airport, and London Gatwick were also affected.

In India, airlines at New Delhi’s Terminal 3 were giving handwritten boarding passes to flyers, while airport staff were using whiteboards to display gate information, according to an airport official. Airports in Hong Kong and Singapore also switched to manual check-in.

At Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport in Baltimore, Maryland, nurse Rose Geffrard, 37, travelling with her two children to a cousin’s wedding in Boston, said she spent nearly two hours waiting in a long line to get paper tickets.

Spirit Airlines personnel had to page through printed passenger manifests before issuing paper tickets and then consulted a printed seating chart to make sure they were not double-assigning seats.

Compensation Questions

In Europe, airlines are required to compensate passengers for delays of more than three hours, but it was unclear to what extent they would be held legally responsible for the outage. A spokesperson for European consumer organisation BEUC said airlines would have to prove the outage was an extraordinary circumstance to not compensate passengers.

In 2022, major US airlines committed to providing meals for customers delayed by three hours and hotel rooms for stranded passengers if prompted by issues under the airlines’ control.

Unlike in Europe, there is no legal requirement for airlines in the United States to compensate passengers for lengthy delays. It is also not clear if the IT issue will be deemed an airline-caused delay.

— Reuters

Passengers wait at Barajas Airport, as Spanish airport operator Aena on Friday reported a computer systems “incident” at all Spanish airports which may cause flight delays, in Madrid, Spain July 19, 2024. REUTERS/Elena Rodriguez

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