Flight delays expected to continue in the UK after IT outage

Airports have said their systems are working again but have warned that flights could be affected into the weekend.

A number of airports across the country have said that passengers should keep an eye out for potential disruption.

Yesterday's outage came amid one of the busiest days of the year for air travel with many schools across England and Wales recently breaking up for the summer holidays.

We are affected by the global Microsoft issues, so passengers may experience some delays while checking in and passing through security.

Passengers should still arrive for their normal check-in time. We apologise for any inconvenience and are working to resolve the issue as… pic.twitter.com/T9adpYELxW

— London Gatwick LGW (@Gatwick_Airport) July 19, 2024

A number of other services were affected by the IT outage with schools, GPs, pharmacies and banks reporting problems.

The issue was caused by a faulty software update for Microsoft Windows issued by cyber-security firm Crowdstrike.

Discussing the current situation, London Gatwick Airport said that its systems are "operating as normal" but stated that "some delays and cancellations will however continue this evening and over the weekend".

Manchester Airport issued a similar update to passengers, confirming that their IT systems were up and running again but warning that flights "may still be subject to delays and cancellations"

According to the aviation analytics firm Cirium, 338 flights in and out of the UK - 167 departures and 171 arrivals - were cancelled on Friday.

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Today was not a security or cyber incident. Our customers remain fully protected.

We understand the gravity of the situation and are deeply sorry for the inconvenience and disruption. We are working with all impacted customers to ensure that systems are back up and they can…

— George Kurtz (@George_Kurtz) July 19, 2024

Since the outage, Crowdsrike issued a statement reading: "CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This was not a cyberattack.

"The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed. We are referring customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide complete and continuous public updates on our blog."

The software company added: "Our team is fully mobilized to ensure the security and stability of CrowdStrike customers.

"We understand the gravity of the situation and are deeply sorry for the inconvenience and disruption. We are working with all impacted customers to ensure that systems are back up and they can deliver the services their customers are counting on."