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IT outage: IATA sympathises with travellers over disruption, United issues waiver for travel dates

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has expressed its sympathy to travellers who face disruption because of the massive IT outage that has grounded many airlines in the world and impacted business around the globe.

IATA in a statement to Aviation Metric  said, “Air transport is among the many industries affected by today’s worldwide IT issues with Microsoft and Crowdstrike.”

“We sympathize with travellers who face disruption because of these issues which are outside of airlines’ control, and we thank travellers for their patience while Microsoft and Crowdstrike deploy solutions.”

Similarly, United States-based carrier, United Airlines explained that a third-party software outage impacted computer systems worldwide, including at United.

“We are resuming some flights but expect schedule disruptions to continue throughout Friday. We have issued a waiver to make it easier for customers to change their travel plans via United.com or the United app.”

The groundings come hours after Microsoft said it had resolved a cloud services outage that had forced a grounding of Frontier and Sun Country flights, though it is unclear if the groundings of departing flights from major air carriers are related.

American Airlines said it was “aware of a technical issue with CrowdStrike that is impacting multiple carriers. American is working with CrowdStrike to resolve the issue as quickly as possible and apologize to our customers for the inconvenience.”

  Major US airlines including American Airlines, Delta Airlines and United Airlines have been grounded, while airports in Germany, Amsterdam and Spain are also reporting issues.

London’s biggest airport, Heathrow, said in a statement that its “flights are operational though we are experiencing delays”.

It said it was implementing contingency plans to minimise any impact on journeys and passengers are advised to check with their airline for the latest flight information.

Gatwick Airport said “passengers may experience some delays” due to the global outage – particularly when checking in and passing through security.

Luton Airport also said it was aware of the global IT issue and is currently using manual systems to support operations.

Ryanair, Europe’s largest airline by passenger numbers, warned customers of potential disruptions which it said would affect “all airlines operating across the network,” though it did not specify the nature of the disruptions.

While passengers at Edinburgh Airport were unable to use automated boarding pass scanners and monitors at security displayed a message saying “server offline”, according to a Reuters witness.

The airport had reverted to checking boarding passes manually, the witness said

The IT outage has also reached GP surgeries across the UK, which said they are unable to access patient records or book appointments.

NHS England said the IT outage is “causing disruption in the majority of GP practices” in England but there is currently no known impact on 999 or emergency services.

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