This story is being updated as it develops. International Airport Review are covering all disruption to airlines and airports.
Around the globe, many companies are experiencing power outages. Some of these are airlines and airports, while others are healthcare providers, broadcasting and online payment companies.
All times are GMT.
At 0758, the BBC reported that flights at Sydney Airport had been grounded. The London Stock Exchange were also reported to be experiencing issues.
At 0759 Microsoft reported that they were experiencing an outage.
0802: GTR (UK rail operator) announced that they were experiencing difficulties, leading to short-notice cancellations and delays.
0806: Berlin Airport reports delays due to “technical fault.” In Spain, airports reported an “incident.”
“We are working to solve it as soon as possible. Meanwhile, operations are continuing with manual systems,” the Spanish airport operator said.
0810: Sky News is off air in the UK.
0824: Departure boards freeze and malfunction at Edinburgh Airport. They showed out-of-date information to customers; some passengers have now missed their flights. A fire alarm was triggered, thought to be due to a computer error. Edinburgh Airport announce that the issue will be resolved.
0846: Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport has been affected.
“The outage has an impact on flights flying from and to Schiphol,” a spokesperson said, adding it is not yet clear how many flights are affected.
0847: Long queues are reported at London Stanstead, but flights are reportedly still running.
“Our main operational systems are unaffected,” a spokesperson says, but “some retail payment machine services have been impacted”.
0902: Christchurch International Airport report an outage. They announce that it may affect arrivals and departures.
0902: Cybersecurity company Crowdstrike are named in the situation. A cybersecurity update gone wrong is mentioned, bringing the “blue screen of death” to a lot of organisations.
0920: American Airlines blame Crowdstrike. AA is the biggest carrier by number of passengers, with an average of 578,000 passengers a day. The airline say that they are working with the cybersecurity firm to deliver a solution as quickly as possible.
0924: Barcodes are not working at Gatwick Airport. Boarding passes are being registered manually. Flights are still taking off but delays are expected due to an air traffic control backlog.
0931: United Airlines have blamed ‘third-party software’.
“A third party software outage is impacting computer systems worldwide, including at United,” a spokesperson said.
“While we work to restore those systems, we are holding all aircraft at their departure airports. Flights already airborne are continuing to their destinations.”
0935: Delhi Airport has gone manual. A whiteboard has been used to inform passengers of their departures and gate numbers. Baggage tags were also printed blank – customers had to fill them in manually. The airport is open but processes are slower.
0949: German airlines Lufthansa and SAS Airline report disruption to booking systems. SAS Airline is still operational.
Prague Airport report disruption; they have issues with their check-in service. This issue is also being experienced by German carrier Eurowings.
In Northern Ireland, Belfast International say that the airport is affected, but flights remain operational.
Switzerland’s largest airport, Zurich, have forbade planes from landing.
0951: Dutch Airline KLM has said that flight handling is “impossible.” They have had to suspend most operations.
“We realise that this is very inconvenient for our customers and staff, particularly in the midst of the summer holiday season,” it says.
1008: UK rail operators affected:
- Avanti West Coast
- c2c
- Gatwick Express
- Great Northern
- Great Western Railway
- Hull Trains
- London Northwestern Railway
- Lumo
- Merseyrail
- Northern
- Southern
- Thameslink
- Transport for Wales
- TransPennine Express
- West Midlands Railway
Trains are still running.
1001: Disruption reported at Luton Airport. IT systems down across departments.
So far, according to Cirium (LNRS Data Company), over 1000 flights have been cancelled globally. This Friday (19th July 2024), was set to be the busiest day for UK flight departures, with over 3214 departures.
1014: Mallorca Airport facing disruption with three hour queues.
