Air travel is experiencing disruptions across the globe on Friday morning due to a Microsoft outage for customers of its 365 apps, including many major airlines.
In the U.S., more than 3,000 flights within, into or out of the U.S. had been canceled as of 9 p.m. Eastern Time, while more than 11,400 flights had been delayed, according to FlightAware, a flight tracking service.
Airlines said the outage impacted the back-end systems they use to send key data, such as weight and balance information, required for planes to depart.
Air travelers posted images on social media of long lines at ticket counters, and “blue screens of death” — the Microsoft error page when its programs aren’t working — at screens at various airports. The issue was caused by a software update sent from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike to Microsoft, and which it said it had identified in its systems and was working to resolve.
In a nutshell, this is PR nightmare for CrowdStrike and Microsoft and others get caught in this tornado along with millions of people currently stranded at airports around the globe,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said in a report.
Travelers in Europe are also facing disruptions, with Lufthansa, KLM and SAS Airlines reporting issues. Switzerland’s largest airport, in Zurich, said planes were not being allowed to land, according to CBS News partner network BBC News.
In Australia, airline Jetstar canceled all flights from the Brisbane airport for the day, according to the BBC. One traveler in Scotland told The Guardian she paid $8,600 for new tickets back to the U.S. after her original flight was canceled due to the IT outage.