Airlines, governments and businesses race to get back on track after global technological disruption

Carriers, companies and governments are rushing to get all their systems back online on Saturday after prolonged disruptions following a widespread failure of technology.

The biggest ongoing impact is on air travel. Airlines canceled thousands of flights on Friday, leaving many of their planes and crews stranded, while airports continue to face ongoing check-in and security issues. As of 1 p.m. EDT on Saturday, flight-tracking service FlightAware listed about 24,000 delayed flights on its website.

The core of the massive disruption is CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity company that provides software to dozens of companies worldwideThe company says the problem arose when it deployed a faulty update to computers running Microsoft Windows, noting that the issue behind the outage was not a security incident or cyberattack.

The outage at Microsoft caused by the CrowdStrike software update also brought back a familiar – and dreaded – screen for many Windows users: what has informally become known as the “blue screen of death,” indicating that their computer systems are not working.

The outage affected consumers and businesses around the world, including airlines, banks, healthcare providers, telecom companies, retailers and even billboards in Times Square in New York City.

Microsoft said in a blog post shared Saturday morning that it is working with CrowdStrike to automate work on developing a fix, sharing instructions on how to resolve the issue, and “hundreds of Microsoft engineers and experts are working directly with customers to restore services,” among other steps to keep people informed and help affected customers.

Here’s the latest news:

Britain’s transport system is still trying to get back on track

LONDON — Britain’s travel and transport sector is struggling to get back on track after the global security outage left air passengers facing cancellations and delays on the first day of the summer holidays for many schoolchildren.

Gatwick Airport said “a majority” of scheduled flights would depart. Manchester Airport said passengers were being checked in manually and there could be last-minute cancellations.

The Port of Dover reported an influx of displaced air passengers and that passengers had to wait for hours to enter the port and take the ferry to France.

Meanwhile, the UK’s National Cyber ​​Security Centre warned people and businesses to be wary of phishing attempts as “opportunistic malicious actors” attempt to take advantage of the outage.

Former National Cyber ​​Security Centre director Ciaran Martin said the worst of the crisis was over, “because the nature of the crisis is that it went very wrong very quickly. It was picked up quite quickly and in effect it was shut down.”

He told Sky News that some businesses could return to normal very quickly, but that it would take longer for sectors such as aviation.

“When you’re in aviation, you have people, planes, personnel all stranded in the wrong place… So we’re looking at days. I’d be surprised if we were looking at weeks.”

German airline expects most flights to operate normally

BERLIN — Eurowings, a budget subsidiary of Lufthansa, said it expects to resume “largely scheduled” flights on Saturday.

On Friday, the global IT outage forced the airline to cancel about 20% of its flights, mainly on domestic routes, and passengers were asked to take the train instead.

“Online check-in, airport check-in, boarding processes, booking and rebooking of flights are all possible again,” the airline said on Saturday at X. “However, due to the significant scale of the global IT outage, there may still be isolated disruptions” for passengers, it said.

Delta Air Lines and its regional affiliates have canceled hundreds of flights

DALLAS — Delta Air Lines and its regional subsidiaries canceled more than a quarter of their East Coast flight schedules Friday afternoon, according to aviation data provider Cirium.

More than 1,100 flights for Delta and its partners have been canceled. About 40% of the airline’s mainline flights were delayed through Saturday afternoon, with another 25% canceled. About 40% of regional flights have been canceled, according to FlightAware, with Georgia’s Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport remaining the epicenter of the disruption.

About half of United Airlines’ flights were delayed through Saturday afternoon, and another 15% were canceled. The airline’s hub airport in Houston is experiencing the most delays.

American Airlines’ network has canceled 450 flights, 7.5% of its schedule, and is considering Saturday as a recovery day.

Southwest and Alaska are not using the CrowdStrike software that was responsible for the global internet outage. Fewer than six flights were canceled each.

Mayor of Portland, Oregon, declares emergency over power outage

PORTLAND, Ore. — Mayor Ted Wheeler declared a state of emergency Friday after more than half of the city’s computer systems were affected by the global internet outage.

Wheeler said at a news conference that while emergency calls were not interrupted, dispatchers had to manually monitor 911 calls for several hours with pen and paper. He said 266 of the city’s 487 computer systems were affected.

Border crossings into the US are delayed

SAN DIEGO — People trying to enter the U.S. from both the north and south experienced delays at border crossings due to the internet outage.

According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, the San Ysidro Port was completely jammed Friday morning, with pedestrians having to wait three hours to cross.

Even cars with people approved for a U.S. Customers and Border Protection “Trusted Traveler” program for low-risk passengers faced waits of up to 90 minutes. The program, known as SENTRI, allows passengers to go through customs and passport control faster if they make an appointment for an interview and undergo a background check to speed up their passage through customs and passport control once they arrive in the U.S.

Meanwhile, at the U.S.-Canada border, Windsor police reported long delays at border crossings at the Ambassador Bridge and the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel.