CrowdStrike Outage Caused 46,000 Flight Cancelations Globally In Just One Day

Cybersecurity software Crowdstrike experienced a global outage on Friday, causing problems in a variety of industries, from financial to air travel and even taking down emergency services in some areas. It was an absolute disaster that, among other things, left thousands of travelers stranded, and it’s still causing canceled flights. On Friday alone, airlines canceled about 46,000 flights, the Washington Post reports.

Airlines Have to Pay Up for Poor Service

The CrowdStrike outage reportedly hit Delta the hardest. On Friday, it canceled about 1,200 flights compared to United’s 649, American’s 408 and Southwest’s 234. You would think things would have gotten better by Sunday, but Delta ended up canceling another 1,300 flights, and today, it’s already canceled another 600.

In a blog post on Delta’s website, CEO Ed Bastian claimed the outage forced the airline to cancel more than 3,500 flights through Saturday, suggesting the total number of canceled flights is now north of 5,000. Bastian also said the outage hit on one of the busiest travel weekends of the year, with their “booked loads exceeding 90%, limiting our recommendation capabilities.” He also added:

Specifically, the issue impacted the Microsoft Windows operating system. Delta has a significant number of applications that use that system, and in particular one of our crew tracking-related tools was affected and unable to effectively process the unprecedented number of changes triggered by the system shutdown. Our teams have been working around the clock to recover and restore full functionality.

While most airlines had a bad weekend, Southwest managed to mostly escape unharmed. As Forbes reports, a spokesperson for the budget airline only said, “The outage did not directly affect our operations, but we encourage customers to check their flight status throughout the day while the overall aviation system continues to recover.”