Hundreds of US flights were canceled early Monday as airlines continue to recover from a global tech outage that occurred four days ago, causing significant delays and leaving travelers stranded at airports nationwide.
By 7:30 a.m. ET on Monday, more than 700 flights to, from, or within the United States had been canceled, with an additional 800 flights experiencing delays, according to a flight tracking site.
While most airlines have managed to reduce their cancellation numbers, Delta Air Lines accounted for over 600 of the canceled flights on Monday, as reported by the flight tracking site. Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian acknowledged the challenges faced by the company and assured customers that efforts were underway to restore operations following the outage.
The tech outage, described as the 'largest IT outage in history,' was triggered by a software update for Microsoft devices late Thursday, leading to widespread disruptions in computer systems globally. The incident resulted in chaos at airports, outages in 911 services, and operational difficulties in healthcare facilities.
Bastian explained that a crew tracking-related tool was particularly affected by the outage, causing issues in processing the high volume of changes resulting from the system shutdown.
Microsoft reported that approximately 8.5 million Windows devices, representing less than one percent of all Windows machines, were impacted by the outage. Despite the relatively small percentage, the repercussions were far-reaching, affecting various sectors such as airlines, banks, businesses, schools, governments, and even some health and emergency services worldwide.
The economic impact of the outage is estimated to exceed $1 billion, according to the CEO of Anderson Economic Group. However, it remains uncertain whether and how customers affected by the disruption will be compensated for the inconvenience caused.
