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A global IT outage has halted travel systems around the world, causing problems for passengers at airports, railways and gas stations.
American Airlines, United Airlines and Delta Air Lines grounded flights on Friday, citing possible communications problems, while airports and airlines around the world reported issues and delays affecting airlines.
The power outage affected boarding, ticketing and pilot communication channels, causing passengers to experience delays and cancellations.
Scott Sanders, a passenger at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, told Business Insider that people were sleeping on the ground because of the chaos, but the atmosphere was relatively calm, Sanders said.
Sanders’ flight to Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG) was scheduled to depart at 10:55pm on Thursday, but after waiting an hour and a half on board, passengers were asked to disembark.
He still hoped to attend his father’s 80th birthday celebration on Friday.
Crowdstrike is putting a damper on this trip. I’m trying to get from Southeast Asia to Ohio to celebrate my father’s 80th birthday. I hear the poor gate agent announce, but who knows how long this will last.#CrowdStrike #Seattle pic.twitter.com/t4nCH8Y6UD
— Scott Sanders (@SeahawkSanders) July 19, 2024
Civil servant Jordan van den Lam told BI he had been stuck at Hobart Airport in Tasmania for six hours.
Lam said the airport was empty as other passengers had been told their flights had been cancelled.
He was told the plane could still take off but was cancelled five hours later. Jetstar would not pay for his accommodation, he said.
However, the airline offered disgruntled passengers two vouchers worth $10.70 (AUD16), but they could only use the full amount at once, without giving change.
“I’m tired and hopeless”
Sarah Patterson experienced similar confusion at Los Angeles International Airport.
Patterson told BI that her Spirit Airlines flight to Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) was delayed for more than two hours on Thursday evening and ultimately canceled.
It took three hours for her to collect her checked luggage from the airline, she said.
In addition to the delays, the airline’s app was completely unresponsive and they told us we couldn’t rebook.
“There were at least three flights’ worth of passengers lined up at the Spirit counter, all trying to rebook,” Patterson said.
“I have a family trip coming up on Saturday so it’s pretty brutal,” she said.
A Spirit Airlines spokesperson told BI that the airline’s teams are working “to get everything back up and running as quickly as possible.” The airline wrote on Friday that it was unable to rebook flights for affected passengers due to the outage.
Jaccalyn Ebuell was also stranded at Los Angeles International Airport after boarding an 11:15pm flight to Washington DC. She was asked to disembark an hour later, and her flight was canceled at 3:30am.
“We were left on the tarmac for an hour and they told us it was a technical issue with Microsoft,” Ebru told BI. “Then we had to get off the plane and everyone just sat there and waited.”
She called the whole experience a “nuisance” and planned to just go home.
“People with children seem very tired and desperate,” she added.
Reverting to manual processes
The global IT outage is affecting airlines in different ways, depending on their use of Microsoft services in their operations.
At Australia’s Melbourne Airport, international airlines Jetstar and Scoot are experiencing ongoing issues, while other international airlines are serving passengers as normal, the airport confirmed. About X Friday morning.
Some airlines have resorted to manual processes to deal with the situation.
At Singapore Changi Airport, whiteboards displaying flight numbers have been installed in the lounge in Terminal 1.
Meanwhile, passengers on Indian airline IndiGo posted images of their handwritten boarding passes on social media. IndiGo was unable to verify their accounts, but the airline confirmed on X that the outage affected access to boarding passes and check-in.
Train and gas station
Travelers trying to use other forms of transport are also facing disruptions.
UK’s national rail operator report There was a network-wide IT issue on Friday morning.
In the US, Amtrak has confirmed to its X customers that it is experiencing issues with its booking website, with arrival information not working for some stations.
Drivers were also not spared from the traffic chaos.
Some Speedway gas stations across the U.S. have been closed because their digital gas pumps were out of order, while others are not accepting payments, a Speedway customer service employee confirmed to BI.
“We have had to switch to cash-only payments and some stores don’t have internet access,” the employee said.
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