Huge Microsoft outage hits airlines — live updates on Delta, United, American, Southwest and more

British Airways

British Airways has reported that some of their flights may be delayed. Currently, searching flights on their status page shows that a number of flights are delayed, but not all.  

From their website: 

Due to the impact of the global Microsoft IT outage, some of our flights may experience disruption. Our teams are working hard to manage this issue as quickly as possible.

Please visit our flight status page for the most up-to-date information on your flight. We apologise for any potential impact to your travel plans. 

If you have a connecting flight as part of the same ticket and there’s a chance you may miss your connection, we'll automatically rebook your onward journey. Please check Manage My Booking. 

Our call centres are also experiencing issues. We’ve introduced greater flexibility on ba.com for customers travelling today on our short-haul network. This flexibility will enable you to make changes to your booking via Manage My Booking free of charge.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

United Airlines is issuing waivers for any flights affected by the outage. It includes flights to airports across the United States including LAX in Los Angeles, O'Hare in Chicago and Orlando. 

From their website: "You can reschedule your trip and we’ll waive change fees and fare differences. But, your new flight must be a United flight departing between July 18, 2024 and July 25, 2024. Tickets must be in the same cabin and between the same cities as originally booked."

American Airlines

American Airlines is also issuing waivers for flights affected by the outage. The list of cities isn't as big as United's but it does cover most major ports across the county.

From their website - 

The change fee is waved if: 

• Are traveling on an American Airlines flight 
• Are booked in any fare class, including Basic Economy 
• Bought your ticket by July 18, 2024 
• Are scheduled to travel July 19, 2024 
• Can travel July 18 - July 25, 2024 
• Don’t change your origin or destination city 
• Rebook in the same cabin or pay the difference

This interesting video shows how the CrowdStrike/Microsoft outage affected plane traffic in the United States over a 12-hour period. It specifically looks at American Airlines, Delta and United. Southwest is apparently not affected.

Delta Air Lines

Delta joins the affected air lines offering waivers to travelers hit by delays. Their waivers are similar to ones we've already seen from American and United.

• When rebooked travel occurs on or before July 24, 2024  in the same cabin of service as originally booked, the fare difference will be waived.
  • A fare difference may apply when the waiver is class to class restrictive and the original booking class is not maintained in the rebooked itinerary.
• When rebooked travel occurs after July 24, 2024, a difference in fare may apply.
• If travel is not able to be rescheduled within these guidelines, customers may cancel their reservation and apply any unused value of the ticket toward the purchase of a new ticket for a period of one year from the original ticket issuance.  Applicable fare difference may apply for new travel dates. Final travel must be completed by end of ticket validity.
• *When rescheduled travel occurs beyond July 24, 2024, the change fee will be waived. However, a difference in fare may apply. Final travel must be completed by end of ticket validity, one year from date of original issue. If travel is not able to be rescheduled within these guidelines, customers may cancel their reservation and apply any unused value of the ticket toward the purchase of a new ticket for a period of one year from the original ticket issuance. Applicable change fee and fare

Alaska Airlines

Smaller airlines like Alaska and JetBlue don't seem to be affected. On X, Alaska responded to a customer saying that their systems are not impacted by the outage but that busy airports and travelers being funneled from other flights have caused some delays.

Spirit Airlines issued a travel advisory saying that the outage was affecting their reservations and airport systems. 

"If your flight is cancelled, you have the option to receive a refund, reservation credit, or to be rebooked on another Spirit flight. If your flight has been delayed by more than 2 hours, you can be rebooked on another Spirit flight, or receive a reservation credit or a refund if you do not wish to fly. To receive a refund, please chat with us through SMS directly at 833-417-5700 or visit www.spirit.com/help. "

They said that airport staff cannot assist with rebooking at the moment. 

Spirit Airlines

Over on Reddit, a number of alleged pilots are sharing their experiences with the outage and how its affecting flights that they are a part of.

One Redditor claimed:
Boarding is taking about 5x as long currently since each passenger has to be manually checked in and accounted for. Got called out for a day turn on reserve, packed a 3 day bag.

Another said: 

Had to park at a remote stand because the airport closed all the gate positions. Heard people asking if LOWW was closed and that was it. Didnt even notice something happend until turning airplane mode off.

It mostly seems like delays for those who are working and rerouting or people are being sent home.

A New York Times report claims that at some of the largest airports in the world, officials have been manually checking in passengers. In India, people were getting handwritten boarding passes. 

US Department of Transportation

The FAA and the US Department of Transportation are monitoring the outage and earlier today the Department of Transportation reminded travelers taht there is a FlightRights.gov tool to navigate airline responsibilities.

It was reported by the NY Times that airlines were reluctant to issue waivers for the outage but that the Transportation bureau claimed that the outage could be considered within an airline's control. After that waivers began appearing.

Nothing appears to have changed for affected airlines. There are still delays. But Microsoft's CEO Satya Nadella has acknowledged the outage and says the company is working with CrowdStrike to fix the issue.

Here are some of the affected airports according to a CNN report: 

• Passengers traveling through Los Angeles International Airport are experiencing a “mixed bag” of delays and cancellations due to the tech outage, an airport spokesperson told CNN.
• At Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport airside operations are working, although some customer-facing airlines “are dealing with a few challenges,” amid the ongoing global computer outage, Andrew Gobeil, who oversees public affairs outreach at the airport, told CNN.
• At Dallas Fort Worth International Airport officials “anticipate significant delays and cancellations throughout the day,” the airport said. “We ask customers to verify your flight status with your airline prior to heading to the airport. Longer lines are possible so allow extra time.”
• Chicago O’Hare International Airport advised passengers to check their flight status directly with their carrier due to the tech issues. “Longer lines and wait times are possible, please allow extra time,” it said.
• John F. Kennedy International Airport said: “The Port Authority is not affected by the ongoing global network outage, but some airlines are experiencing delays/cancellations. DO NOT head to the airport unless your flight status is confirmed,” according to an airport post on X. That guidance applies to LaGuardia and Newark airports as well.
• Philadelphia International Airport said passengers should expect delays and cancellations on Friday.
• Charlotte Douglas International Airport advised passengers not to come to the airport “unless they have confirmed their flight information with the airline.”
• Miami International Airport advised that US Customs and Border Patrol operations are being affected nationwide, “so international passenger arrivals are currently being processed manually at a slower pace.”

The website FlightRader24 keeps track of planes around the world and airports. While the main flight tracker shows hundreds of planes in the air, the airport disruption map they have shows airports across the country with delays.

The map above shows disrupted airports regarding departs. Green is okay, yellow means that there are minor delays with some cancellations. Red means major delays and cancellations.

Planes that already in the air should be fine, but as you can see mutliple airports are experiencing delays. The hardest hit in both arrivals and departures appears to be Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport and all three of the major airports in New York City. 

United released an update saying that some flights have resumed but they don't know when all flights will fully be back on schedule.

Not much to update at this time. Flights are still delayed for all three carriers and they are working through it.

Here's why Southwest is still up and running

Southwest is one of the few airlines with flights operating normally. Does Southwest run Mac or Linux on its systems, thus saving it from catastrophe? 

No, it turns out Southwest is fine because the company is running Windows 3.1, a version of Windows so old that it's not impacted by any of the CrowdStrike issues causing blue screens on Windows machines the world over. 

To give you some perspective, Windows 3.1 is about 32 years old — likely older than many of you reading this live blog. Some systems are upgraded to Windows 95, but that hasn't stopped them.

Of course, in any other situation, running Windows 3.1 would be a security nightmare, but today, Southwest's reluctance to run a modern operating system is the one thing that lets its planes take flight.