Flights canceled at Central Florida airports while worldwide technology outage forces ground stops

ORLANDO, Fla. – Several major airlines have delayed or canceled flights Friday due to a global technology disruption affecting Microsoft.

Delta, United, American and Frontier were among the major U.S. airlines reporting ground stops Friday morning after an update pushed to Windows users by information security vendor CrowdStrike impacted access to Microsoft 365 apps and services worldwide.

“The FAA is closely monitoring a technical issue impacting IT systems at U.S. airlines,” the Federal Aviation Administration said on social media. “Several airlines have requested FAA assistance with ground stops until the issue is resolved.”

As many as 76 Friday flights at Orlando International Airport were listed as canceled around 9 a.m., according to MCO’s website; it’s unconfirmed whether the outage is to blame for most if not all of them.

News 6 reporter Ezzy Castro asked guests at MCO about their flight status.

“We don’t know. They said a lot of flights are delayed but the apps are not updating so it’s still saying, ‘On time,’” said one man hoping to fly to Salt Lake City, Utah. “(...)We came downstairs from the hotel and we were like, ‘This does not look good,’ and we were right.”

In a statement, MCO acknowledged a worldwide technology issue was affecting several carriers, advising passengers that flight delays and cancellations may occur.

Orlando Sanford International Airport said much of the same on social media, telling travelers to contact Allegiant Airlines directly to check their flight status. Nine Allegiant flights at SFB were listed as canceled at the time of this writing.

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United Airlines issued a statement that included a link to a waiver for those wishing to change their travel plans in light of the outage.

American Airlines reported it was able to safely re-establish its operations as of 5 a.m., apologizing to customers for the inconvenience.

Spirit encouraged guests to check its social media for updates. The airline told customers that it was currently unable to rebook guests whose travel plans were disrupted, promising to assist them “as soon as possible when our vendor restores service.”

Delta has said its ground stop was expected to last until 8 a.m., attributing the condition to a communication issue affecting all flights regardless of destination. In an update shared at 8:38 a.m. on social media, the airline said it’s resumed some flights and has issued a travel waiver to customers.

Frontier Airlines told its customers that its ground stop was lifted around 12:18 a.m.; those with canceled flights — or flights delayed more than 180 minutes — were eligible for rebooking, flight cancelation with credit or a flight cancelation with a refund.

CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said on social media that the outage was not a security incident or a cyberattack, adding the issue had been identified and isolated as a fix is deployed.

This is a developing story.

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