(Bloomberg) — Airlines around the world experienced disruption on an unprecedented scale after a widespread global computer outage kept aircrafts on the ground and created chaos at airports just as the busiest summer vacation season gets underway.
In total, there were more than 1,300 flights globally that had been canceled amid an IT-system meltdown that hobbled communication between aircraft and ground-control staff. The disruption hit travellers on a particularly active day — the UK, for example, was preparing for the highest number of daily departures since October 2019, according to aviation data provider Cirium.
Meanwhile, Canada’s largest airport posted on social media saying that major airlines Air Canada, WestJet, Flair and Sunwing had not been affected as of Friday morning.
“Some American air carriers are starting to see operations resume,” the X account for Toronto Pearson International Airport wrote.
“With the third-party IT outage continuing to impact some airlines around the world, we recommend travellers confirm the status of their flight before coming to the airport.”
In Montreal, some flights at the Trudeau airport were delayed or cancelled. The airport’s X account posted online, urging travellers to contact their airline directly.
United Airlines Holdings Inc., Delta Air Lines, American Airlines Group Inc and Spirit Airlines Inc. all temporarily grounded flights because of communications issues, according to a Federal Aviation Administration advisory page. In Europe, carriers from Deutsche Lufthansa AG to Air France-KLM and low-cost specialist Ryanair Holdings Plc said operations are disrupted as the issue swept the globe.
FlightAware put global delays at more than 16,000 flights, with those in the US approaching 1,000. United said it’s resuming some flights but cautioned travelers should expect schedule disruptions to continue throughout Friday. Airports in the US that were closed or severely constrained included Boston, Laguardia, Las Vegas and Sacramento, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
While outages can occur in the aviation industry, one on such a global scale is a rare event. Last August, UK airspace suffered the worst air-traffic glitch in a decade, leading to hundreds of delays and cancellations on one of the busiest days in the travel season. At the start of last year in the US, a system outage led US authorities to temporarily ground planes nationwide.
The meltdown is affecting airlines differently. For some, the outage has restricted the ability of network operations centers from communicating with stations and airports, while for others, passengers are either unable to access booking systems or online check-in services. With systems down, some airlines were being forced to manually check-in passengers at airports, causing long queues and delays.
The communications outages extended into aircraft cockpits, with United Airlines experiencing intermittent issues with tools that it uses to message pilots, such as ACARS, the FAA said in an advisory.
While systems typically return to normal after such disruptions, resuming normal service can take several days because aircraft and crews will be out of position, and network operations centers go offline. Canceled long-haul flights, in particular, will have ripple effects for days, coming at the peak of the summer travel season.
In Amsterdam, KLM said it had been forced to suspend “most operations” as the outage made it “impossible to handle flights.” Indian low cost airlines SpiceJet and IndiGo both reported technical issues affecting online services like booking, check-in and access to boarding passes. The airlines warned of potential long lines at airports for manual check-in.
Delhi International Airport reported some services being impacted, with passengers complaining on social media of long waits at check-in and baggage counters, as well as display boards of flight information down.
Flight tracking site FlightRadar24 showed that among the worst hit airports in Europe were Berlin, Venice and Amsterdam. Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA said it had to divert a Berlin-bound flight back to Oslo, with the airport in the German capital showing almost no flight movements on the tracking site. Gatwick said that it’s experiencing some issues with its IT systems.
The cost of the meltdown won’t be known for a while. United said it has issued a waiver to make it easier for customers to change travel plans. But for thousands of people planning to head to their vacation, the journey started with severe, and potentially expensive, chaos.
“Disruption and delays impose costs on European airlines, even if they are not required to compensate consumers for delays resulting from “extraordinary circumstances,”” Ruairi Cullinane, RBC analyst, wrote on Friday in a note.
Some airlines saw their systems come back swiftly. IAG Group SA’s Iberia said its systems are back to normal after the airline completed check-ins manually due to outages. The systems started working again from about 9:30am, the Spanish airline said.
In Paris, a city preparing for the Olympic Games in a week’s time, IT systems at the Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly were not directly affected, though the global slowdown was hurting check-ins, delays and temporary suspension of certain flight programs at some airlines operating at the airports, Aeroports de Paris said.
Heathrow airport, Europe’s busiest, said flights are operational “though we are experiencing delays.”
“We are implementing contingency plans to minimise any impact on journeys,” the London-based airport said.
—With assistance from Clara Hernanz Lizarraga, Albertina Torsoli and Leen Al-Rashdan
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