NEW YORK (AP/1010 WINS/WCBS 880) — Transport providers, businesses and governments on Saturday are rushing to get all their systems back online after long disruptions following a widespread technology outage.
The biggest continuing effect has been on air travel. Carriers canceled thousands of flights on Friday and now have many of their planes and crews in the wrong place, while airports are facing continued problems with checking in and security.
At the heart of the massive disruption is CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity firm that provides software to scores of companies worldwide. The company says the problem occurred when it deployed a faulty update to computers running Microsoft Windows, noting that the issue behind the outage was not a security incident or cyberattack.
Delta Air Lines and its regional affiliates canceled more than a quarter of their schedule on the East Coast by midafternoon Friday, aviation data provider Cirium said.
More than 1,100 flights for Delta and its affiliates have been canceled.
United and United Express had canceled more than 500 flights, or 12% of their schedule, and American Airlines’ network had canceled 450 flights, 7.5% of its schedule.
Southwest and Alaska do not use the CrowdStrike software that led to the global internet outages and had canceled fewer than a half-dozen flights each.
At the three main New York City area airports—LaGuardia Airport, John F. Kennedy International Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport—there have been 272 canceled flights and 609 delayed flights on Saturday as of 5 p.m.
LaGuardia has delayed 127 flights and canceled 97, JFK has delayed 251 flights and canceled 101 and Newark has delayed 231 flights and canceled 74.
Gov. Kathy Hochul updated New Yorkers on the state’s technology status in the wake of Friday’s global outage on Saturday afternoon.
“We have made significant progress in restoring systems in collaboration with state and local government partners and the third-party provider,” Hochul said, acknowledging that critical life safety services, like 911, are operational.
The governor said that thousands of staff across dozens of state agencies are working to remediate systems over the weekend.
“I remain in close contact with our cyber, IT, and emergency response teams, and can assure New Yorkers that we are doing all we can to quickly restore services,” Hochul said.