Global IT outage grounds flights; disruptions hit Toronto Pearson, Porter cancels

This story was updated on Friday, July 19 at  2:31 p.m. EST

Check your flight status.

A global tech outage began disrupting operations in multiple industries on Friday (July 19) – including aviation.

According to Reuters, airlines are halting flights as their systems encounter problems due to the outage.

According to an alert sent by global cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike to its clients, which Reuters reviewed, the company’s Falcon Sensor software is causing Microsoft Windows to crash and display a blue screen, known informally as the “blue screen of death.”

Earlier on Friday, the company told customers that “CrowdStrike is aware of reports of crashes on Windows hosts related to the Falcon Sensor.”

The crashes are leading to disruptions at airports. In the U.S., the Federal Aviation Administration said United, American, Delta and Allegiant had all been grounded.

Travellers at Los Angeles International Airport slept on the floor, using backpacks and other luggage for pillows, due to a delayed United flight to Dulles International Airport early Friday morning, Reuters reports.

Airlines, railways and television stations in the United Kingdom also being disrupted by the computer problem.

It is not yet clear clear whether all outages were linked to Crowdstrike problems or there were other issues impacting flights.

Toronto Pearson posts updates

Canada’s largest airport, Toronto Pearson (YYZ), has alerted the public that it is aware of the IT issue, posting on its X platform early Friday that “flight delays and cancellations may occur,” advising customers to contact their airline.

In a follow-up post at 6:39 a.m., Pearson noted that “flights continue to arrive and depart at the airport.”

“As of now, Air Canada, WestJet, Sunwing and Flair operations have not been affected,” Pearson wrote.

However: “We’re still seeing issues with major American airlines (Delta, American, United) as well as Porter Airlines.”

A quick glance at Toronto Pearson’s departures board for July 19 shows a long list of delayed flights. However, there are still several flights showing as “on time.” 

A spokesperson from Toronto’s Pearson told CBC News the impacts varied “airline to airline.”

WestJet posted an update to X on Friday, acknowledging the problem. 

“We are aware of the CrowdStrike IT outage impacting Microsoft products and continue to monitor the situation closely. At this time, there has been no direct impact to WestJet systems or operations and any flight cancellations across our network are unrelated to the outage,” the airline wrote in a post.

Halifax Stanfield International Airport has reported similar disruptions and it is expected that other Canadians airports will do the same today.

But things may turn around quickly for some airlines. At around 7:30 a.m. EST, YYZ posted another update to social media, saying that “some American air carriers are starting to see operations resume.”

“With the third-party IT outage continuing to impact some airlines around the world, we recommend travellers confirm the status of their flight before coming to the airport,” Pearson wrote on X.

Porter cancels flights 

In a statement posted to X, Porter Airlines initially announced that it would cancel flights until 12 p.m. ET, today (July 19), “due to third-party systems outages affecting global industries.” 

The cancellation notice was later extended to 3 p.m. EST, according to a post on X.

By 2:20 p.m., Porter finally shared that operations were restarting. “As systems come online, passengers may check their current flight status on http://flyporter.com or via our mobile app,” the airline posted on X. 

READ MORE: Porter operations returning to normal amid global tech outage

In a statement posted to its website early Friday, Porter noted that passengers cannot be rebooked while systems are offline. 

“The rebooking process will take a period of time, with new flights confirmed over a number of days due to high passenger volume,” the airline wrote. “Communication via email and text will be delayed. The most immediate source of information regarding passenger reservations will be via My Bookings at flyporter.com, once systems are online.”

Porter said its call centre agents currently do not have access to reservation or rebooking information. As a result, extended wait times are likely due to anticipated high call volumes, the airline said. 

Porter adds that any passengers needing to cancel travel plans as a direct result of the systems issue will be offered full refunds. 

“When our website is active, you may submit your refund requests using our Customer Relations contact. Refunds will be processed at a later date,” Porter wrote. 

The Toronto-based carrier noted that it is not necessary to contact Porter prior to a scheduled flight. “We’re working to return service to you as quickly as possible,” the airline wrote. 

Other industries facing issues today include broadcasters, banks and health care organizations.

Microsoft 365 posted on X that the company was “working on rerouting the impacted traffic to alternate systems to alleviate impact in a more expedient fashion” and that they were “observing a positive trend in service availability.”

As for aviation, thousands of travellers are facing possible interruptions to their itineraries. According to analytics company Cirium, there are 3,549 flights scheduled today (July 19) departing from Canada, amounting to 444,000 passengers. 

As of 6 a.m. EST, 21 flights departing from Canada had been cancelled, the company reports (this does not include inbound flights to Canada).

Flight disruptions around the world

Globally, there are around 110,000 scheduled commercial flights today. As of 6:00 a.m. EST, there are 1,390 cancelled flights globally, and growing, Cirium reports.

Problems have already been reported at airports in India, impacting thousands of travellers. Hong Kong’s Airport Authority said in a statement that the outage was affecting some airlines at the city’s airport and they had switched to manual check-in.

London’s Stansted Airport said some airline check-in services were being completed manually, but flights were still going ahead as scheduled.

Airports in Tokyo, Amsterdam, Berlin and Spain are also reporting issues with their systems.

This is a developing story.

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