Flight Cancellations: Airlines Work on Damage Control After IT Glitch

Airlines worldwide have made progress in mitigating the impact of an IT outage that severely affected global air travel on Friday. Nevertheless, some flight delays and cancellations continued into Saturday. On Friday, approximately 3,400 flights to, from, and within the United States were canceled, according to data from FlightAware, a flight tracking company. This made it the worst day of the year for flight cancellations, surpassing January 15, when airlines canceled nearly 3,200 flights in the U.S. due to severe winter storms. On Saturday, however, delays and cancellations appeared to be significantly lower than the previous day. By noon, a little over 1,000 flights had been canceled, with Delta Air Lines and United Airlines being the most affected, according to FlightAware. "Delta teams are working tirelessly at airports, on flights, by phone, and in communications to care for customers as the airline works to get flight crews and aircraft back in service following the disruption," the airline said in a statement. Most flight cancellations on Saturday were concentrated in the morning and early afternoon, according to Delta. Several airlines indicated that they would waive fees and fare differences or offer refunds to affected passengers. The Department of Transportation stated that airlines might also need to compensate some travelers for meals, accommodations, and transportation. The IT outage on Friday was caused by a faulty software update from CrowdStrike, a widely used provider of cybersecurity solutions for Microsoft devices. Shortly thereafter, airlines and many other companies and institutions began experiencing technical outages. A variety of systems were affected, including those calculating aircraft weight, checking in customers, issuing boarding passes, and managing call center phone lines.