Over 700 flights delayed at DIA following global tech outage

DENVER (KDVR) — Although much of CrowdStrike’s technical issues were resolved by companies’ IT teams on Friday, issues persisted across the U.S. throughout the weekend, including at Denver International Airport.

The issue, which was not a cyberattack , was the result of a recent content update for Windows hosts. The company said in a social media post that CrowdStrike is testing a new technique to “accelerate impacted system remediation.” The company also apologized for the disruption.

“CrowdStrike continues to focus on restoring all systems as soon as possible. Of the approximately 8.5 million Windows devices that were impacted, a significant number are back online and operational,” the company posted. “We understand the profound impact this has had on everyone. We know our customers, partners and their IT teams are working tirelessly and we’re profoundly grateful. We apologize for the disruption this has created. Our focus is clear: to restore every system as soon as possible.”

Some of the delays Saturday into Sunday may have been due to the weather — heavy rain led to DIA being placed on a ground delay and could have played a part in Sunday’s canceled and delayed flights.

As of 8 p.m. on Sunday, DIA had over 740 flights delayed at the airport, and another 102 flights had been canceled, according to FlightAware . The hardest-hit airlines included Southwest, with 194 delays, but United and Delta had the most canceled flights: 65 and 26, respectively.

American Airlines was reporting 2 canceled flights and 22 delayed, while Frontier was reporting 7 canceled flights and 44 delayed flights. No other airlines reported any canceled flights on Sunday, but the number of delays and cancelations were climbing throughout the evening.

While not all airlines were experiencing difficulties still, Denver’s airport was one of the harder-hit airports on Sunday, too, according to FlightAware. DIA had 43 flights canceled that were originating at the travel hub, far above the next highest originating airport for cancelations: Boston Logan International, which reported only 4 canceled flights.

DIA was also reporting more delays than any other airport on FlightAware: 255 delayed flights originating at the Denver airport, while the next-highest number of delayed flights was awarded to Minneapolis/St. Paul International and Harry Reid International, each with 10 delayed flights as of 4:20 p.m.

Delta Air Lines and United were the top airlines for cancellations on Sunday, according to FlightAware.

Delta Chief Executive Ed Bastian said in a message to customers Sunday that flight cancellations continued as the airline tried to recover its systems and restore operations. He noted that the pause in Delta’s operations resulted in more than 3,500 Delta and Delta Connection scrubbed flights. Delta has been offering waivers to affected customers.

Bastian noted that that one of their crew tracking-related tools was affected and unable to effectively process the unprecedented number of changes triggered by the system outage.

“The technology issue occurred on the busiest travel weekend of the summer, with our booked loads exceeding 90%, limiting our re-accommodation capabilities,” Bastian wrote. “I want to apologize to every one of you who have been impacted by these events.”

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Friday that all passengers who were offered only credits for canceled flights are entitled to get their money back “promptly” if the customers are not taking a rebooking.

“If your airline is automatically giving you credits but you prefer cash, you can tell them you want a refund – and let us know if they fail to provide one,” Buttigieg posted to social platform X, linking the U.S. Department of Transportation’s air travel complaint form .

The DOT has also published a dashboard for the public to know what services U.S. airlines provide that mitigate passenger inconveniences due to a delay or cancellation for a circumstance within the airline’s control.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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