More flight cancellations are expected as airlines gradually recover from the global tech outage

CNN
—

Additional flight cancellations are expected later this week as airlines gradually recover Global technological disruption As a result, thousands of passengers are stranded at airports.

More than 5,400 flights to, from or within the US were canceled and more than 21,300 were delayed on Friday and Saturday. FlightAware.com. With more than 600 flights already canceled on Sunday morning, a third day of chaos is expected at the airports.

problem Extends beyond airportsBusinesses, government agencies, health and emergency services, banks, schools and universities across the world are experiencing disruptions. Defective software update For Microsoft Windows operating systems provided by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, Experts told CNN.

The outage “basically bricked computers around the world,” former general counsel for the US National Security Agency, Glenn Gerstel, told CNN on Saturday.

“This would be the largest single computer incident in terms of overall effects,” Gerstel said. “Maybe not the number of computers, but the impact on people’s lives.”

CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz Apologized Customers and said a fix has been applied, but Experts say Reorganizing systems can be a lengthy process.

The vulnerability affected an estimated 8.5 million Windows devices, which is less than 1% of all Windows computers. A Saturday blog post From Microsoft. “Although the percentage is small, the broader economic and social impacts reflect the use of CrowdStrike by organizations that operate many critical services,” Microsoft said.

Major airlines have said services are being restored, but further delays and disruptions are likely.

Most United Airlines systems have recovered from Friday’s outage, the airline said said in a statement. More than 400 United flights were canceled on Saturday, and more than 200 on Sunday. FlightAware.com.

“While most of our systems have recovered from the global third-party software outage, we may continue to experience some disruptions to our operations, including flight delays and cancellations,” United said.

Delta Air Lines said on Saturday it was “continuing its operational recovery” following a plane crash that prompted it to suspend flights on Friday. morning Upgrade. However, more than 1,000 Delta flights were canceled on Saturday and more than 200 on Sunday.

“Additional cancellations are expected as some of Delta’s technology continues to recover from an issue with the vendor on Friday morning,” the update said.

Also affected was American Airlines, which a Report “We were able to safely restore our operations” on Friday and it “offered travel discounts to our customers affected by the vendor technical issue this morning.” Allegiant Air said Report Saturday That is, “normal operations have resumed” after the outage, they are processing the backlog of customer messages and fixing their programs and platforms.

Even with A faulty system update has been rolled backDavid Kennedy, co-founder of cybersecurity firm Binary Defense, told CNN on Saturday that it’s not a quick fix for airlines that have to manually restart computers individually at thousands of gates.

“It’s not as simple as restarting. There are a lot more steps and complications involved,” Kennedy said. “There aren’t enough people in those airports, in those places, to go and do that.”

Check out this interactive content on CNN.com

The US Department of Transportation It said on Friday that flight delays and cancellations resulting from the system outage were “controllable”, meaning they were “attributable to the airline”. In such cases, airlines must “adhere to their regulations Customer Service Duties.”

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in a social media post Mail He said on Saturday that he has received reports that some airlines are only offering flight loans to passengers for canceled flights.

“Let me be clear – if your flight is canceled and you are not rebooked, you are entitled to an immediate refund,” Buttigieg said.

Frustrated passengers queue up at airports, flight cancellations and delays, weddings, funerals and birthdays are some of the missing life events.

At Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, long lines of passengers waited for help Saturday, with many flights still canceled or delayed.

Delta passenger Catalina Villarreal described the scene: “Mehem. confusion. Frustration. Hungry.”

Villarreal expressed frustration at the lack of information from airlines.

“I’ve canceled three times. I’ve checked in three times for all the flights. Now I have two bags. “So we’re told to come tomorrow or Monday.”

At airports across the country, thousands of people waiting for answers face the same uncertainty.

“I was in California for my mom’s wedding,” Richard Whitfield of Pasco County, Florida, told CNN on Saturday. Whitfield and his partner, Jonathan Shade, left Tampa on Thursday and missed a connecting flight in Atlanta due to bad weather, delaying their landing and forcing them to refuel in Tallahassee.

After the scheduled flight on Friday was delayed several times, the couple decided to cancel the trip and go home. But since there were no flights to Tampa on Friday night, they spent their second night at an airport hotel. They were unable to get a voucher from Delta for either of their stays.

“(Richard) has been on hold for 24 hours,” Shade told CNN. “When he finally got his number, it was 2,001.”

Two hours later, Richard’s place in Delta Air Lines’ virtual customer service line was line 2,300, Shade said.

Whitfield told CNN the whole ordeal had an impact on her.

“For me, it’s a domino effect on humanity and everything we need to survive: food, sleep or water, homes,” he said.

After spending 48 hours in Atlanta, they find a flight back to Tampa on Saturday evening, they say, hoping it won’t be delayed or canceled. For now, all the couple can do is wait and “get a nice stiff drink,” Shade and Whitfield said.

Another passenger at Boston Logan International Airport was trying to fly to Fort Lauderdale for his father’s 96th birthday.

“My flight was canceled this morning. I want to fly to Ft. Lauderdale, so they rebooked to West Palm Beach and I got here to the airport and it was canceled. They didn’t tell me — I had no notification, nothing,” Charlotte Yeh told the CNN affiliate. WFXT on Saturday.

Some travelers at the Boston airport were upset after their summer trips and plans fell through.

“We’ve been booking this trip to Las Vegas for some time,” Mark Forbes told WFXT. “The next flight is canceled on Monday at 6 p.m. direct, and we’re only going to be in Las Vegas for four nights, so we’ll have to rebook the trip.”

Carol Edwards said her flights on Friday and Saturday were canceled and the next available flight wasn’t until Monday.

“We have so many plans that you know we can’t do anything like, you know, seeing family, eating, seeing friends, partying,” he told WFXT.