Key Takeaways
- July 2024 IT outage led to 5,000+ flight cancellations, with North America hit hardest.
- Delta Air Lines cancelled nearly 6,500 flights, bearing the brunt of the disruption.
- Alaska Airlines led North America in on-time performance despite a slight decline from June.
A major global IT outage on July 19, 2024, caused by a software update error from CrowdStrike and Microsoft, led to widespread flight cancellations and delays across North America, according to data from Cirium, a leading aviation analytics company. The disruption resulted in over 5,000 flight cancellations worldwide between July 19 and 21, with North America experiencing the most severe impact.
Cirium’s analysis reveals that the region saw a staggering 98% increase in flight cancellations compared to the previous month. In July, North American airlines cancelled 23,393 flights, up from 11,806 in June. This surge in cancellations significantly affected on-time performance (OTP) for major carriers and airports throughout the region.
Delta Air Lines bore the brunt of the disruption, cancelling almost 6,500 flights, according to Cirium’s data. The airline and its regional affiliates accounted for two-thirds of all flight cancellations worldwide during the outage. Despite these challenges, Cirium reports that Delta managed to secure the third-place position in the region with an OTP of 72.36%.
Cirium’s figures show that United Airlines also saw a decline in performance, with its OTP dropping from 77.44% in June to 73.12% in July. O’Hare International Airport (ORD), a major hub for United, experienced a decrease of nearly 2 points in OTP, finishing at 69.64% for July.
According to Cirium’s rankings, Alaska Airlines emerged as the leader in North America with an OTP of 77.51%, although this represented a slight decline from June’s 77.79%. Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA), Alaska’s main hub, showed resilience with a slight increase in OTP to 76.46%.
Cirium’s comprehensive data indicates that the impact of IT failures varied across different regions. While North America struggled, Latin America and the Middle East & Africa experienced minimal disruptions. Europe and Asia Pacific also faced significant challenges, but many airports in these regions were able to pivot to alternative systems, enabling a quicker return to normal operations.
The disparity in impact and recovery times highlighted by Cirium’s analysis underscores the need for more robust IT infrastructure and better contingency planning in the aviation industry, particularly in North America. The heavy reliance on Microsoft systems by major North American airlines and airports exposed vulnerabilities that may need to be addressed to prevent future large-scale disruptions.
This incident, as documented by Cirium, serves as a wake-up call for the industry, emphasizing the importance of system redundancy and effective crisis management strategies. As airlines and airports work to recover from this setback, many are likely to reassess their IT systems and procedures to enhance resilience against similar failures in the future.
Based on Cirium’s historical data, the July 2024 IT outage is one of the most significant technological disruptions to affect North American air travel in recent years. Its far-reaching consequences may prompt a broader discussion about the intersection of technology and aviation and how to better safeguard against such widespread system failures in an increasingly interconnected world.
