An IT outage on Friday disrupted global air travel, banking, and critical infrastructure, leading to significant flight cancellations and delays over the weekend. Airlines managed to resume flights on Friday, but residual effects caused over 1,800 cancellations and 7,000 delays in the U.S. by Saturday evening. Delta Air Lines and United Airlines experienced the most severe impacts, with hundreds of flights canceled. The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) considers these disruptions "controllable" and is holding airlines responsible for providing accommodations like meals, hotel stays, and ground transportation for stranded passengers. Delta has paused all unaccompanied minor flights until Sunday, and United has issued travel advisories for itinerary changes without fare differences. While some airlines, like American Airlines, have mostly recovered, others, including Spirit, continue to face significant operational challenges. The outage originated from a system update at cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike, affecting numerous airlines and causing widespread travel chaos.
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