Charlotte airport tells passengers to avoid CLT due to global outages grounding flights

Charlotte Douglas International Airport in Charlotte is among many airports around the world being impacted Friday and possibly for several days by a “technology issue,” and it is warning fliers to reconsider coming to one of the world’s busiest airports.

“Due to the ongoing global technology impacts, CLT advises passengers to not come to the airport unless they have confirmed their flight information with the airline,” Charlotte Douglas officials previously said in an update posted at 7:30 a.m. on social media.

Later at 9:58 a.m., CLT officials said some airlines at the airport are beginning to resume operations after morning ground stops due to global technology impacts.

“Passengers can expect cancellations/delays continuing throughout the day and extended wait times,” the airport said on X (formerly known as Twitter) .

Passengers are being asked to contact the airlines directly for the latest flight info.

Multiple airlines have reported issues , resulting in widespread airport closures and delays across the country, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

The massive global tech outage also has impacted medical services, TV broadcasts, banks and many other business and government operations, The New York Times reported. The paper said the outage “was attributed to CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity firm whose software is used by scores of industries around the world to protect against hackers and outside breaches.“

American Airlines reported in a 6 a.m. that it had “been able to safely re-establish (its) operation.” American accounts for about 90% of the traffic out of the Charlotte airport, one of its major hubs.

Even after the tech issues are resolved, there likely will be a cascading impact from the delays for passengers — flights will need to be rescheduled, crews may need to be reassigned and the backlog for gates will need to be managed.

Specifics were not revealed, but the problem was an early morning “technology issue with a vendor,” the airline said.

American Airlines issued travel waivers for customers impacted by technology issues earlier this morning. Passengers can check at https://bit.ly/3LuQcv3 , aa.com or the American Airlines app for the latest updates.

CLT is the seventh-busiest airport in the world, according to the Airport Council International’s preliminary rankings for 2022. Charlotte Douglas had more than 53 million passengers last year.

Other airlines impacted

United Airlines says it is still working “to fully restore systems,” but some flights are resuming, the airline said in a social media post at 6:26 a.m.

“Many customers traveling today may experience delays,” United officials said. “We have issued a waiver to make it easier to change your travel plans.”

Multiple U.S. carriers, including Frontier and Spirit, issued ground stops “citing communication issues,” Reuters reported.

Spirit says the “technology outage” is impacting its reservations system and flight operations.

“Due to the outage, we are currently unable to rebook guests whose travel plans have been disrupted. We will assist these Guests as soon as possible when our vendor restores service,” Spirit officials said in an 8:20 a.m. social media post.

Passengers voice frustrations online

Passengers took to social media recently to complain about the outages at CLT. One user on X took pictures of computer screens and monitors offline, calling his experience “global data outage fun.”

“Might need to change my mailing address to CLT airport at this point. Hoping to make it to Indy between now and October,” another user said on X Friday morning.

“Flew out at 4:30 p.m. yesterday, feel like I was on the last lifeboat off the Titanic,” a Reddit poster said.

FAA monitoring tech issues

The Federal Aviation Administration has not offered an explanation, but says it is “closely monitoring a technical issue impacting IT systems at U.S. airlines.”

“Several airlines have requested FAA assistance with ground stops until the issue is resolved,” the FAA said in a 5:50 a.m. social media post.

Frontier Airlines reported technology issues began around 8 p.m . Thursday, July 18, and it cited “a Microsoft outage.” The airline reported it lifted a ground stop around 12 a.m. Friday.

The FAA said later this morning they will continue to work closely with airlines as they try to resume normal operations. Ground stops and delays will be intermittent at various airports as the airlines work through residual technology issues.

The FAA is encouraging the public to contact the the airlines for more information and monitor www.fly.faa.gov for real-time airspace updates.

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