Fewer flights cancelled after IT outage, but disruptions remain

Flight cancellations and delays eased on Saturday as airlines tried to recover from a global IT outage that caused chaos at airports and other sectors a day earlier.

More than 1,200 flights were canceled on Saturday, including more than 900 in the United States, according to flight tracking site FlightAware. More than 5,000 flights were canceled worldwide on Friday, including about 3,400 in the U.S. More than 12,000 U.S. flights were delayed.

The disruptions resembled extreme weather conditions such as a winter storm or a tropical storm. However, airlines had no time to prepare for the disruption and had to rush to accommodate customers before the summer weekend.

A botched CrowdStrike software update caused widespread outages of Microsoft systems at companies around the world.

“I am proud of our teams around the world who worked around the clock today to safely get our operations back on track and care for our customers after the most disruptive technology outage in history,” said United Airlines COO Toby Enqvist said in a statement Friday night. “While we had to cancel and postpone far more flights than we would ever want, we are ready to return to near-normal operations on Saturday.”

About 7% of United’s mainline flights were canceled on Saturday, compared to 22% on Friday, according to data from FlightAware. Delta Airlines About 10% of flights were cancelled on Saturday, an improvement from 31% the day before.

Airlines have waived fare differences and surcharges for affected customers.