Flights canceled, delayed at Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport on one of its busiest travel days of the year

On what was set to be one of Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport's busier days of the year, a worldwide ground stop affected some airlines that serve the airport, Harold Mester, the airport's director of public affairs and marketing, said Friday.

As of 9:30 a.m., most airlines had restored their systems or put alternative procedures in place, the Milwaukee airport tweeted. But, it warned that travelers should still be prepared for lingering delays and cancellations.

"This is the peak departure day for attendees of the RNC to go home," Mester said. The Republican National Convention wrapped up Thursday night in Milwaukee.

As of 1 p.m. Friday, there were 2,335 cancellations and 6,893 delays within, into or out of the U.S., according to FlightAware . That included 20 cancellations and 56 delays within, into or out of MKE, per FlightAware .

Approximately 13,000 people were expected to depart from the Milwaukee airport Friday, Mester said, though "some of that could be affected due to delays and possible cancellations." United Airlines had more flights to Washington, D.C., scheduled out of Milwaukee Friday than usual due to RNC travel, he noted.

On a typical day, the airport sees 8,000 or 9,000 travelers departing. And, during a spring break period day, that number can get up to 11,000 or 12,000, Mester said.

Several U.S. carriers, including American Airlines, United Airlines and Delta Air Lines, issued ground stops for all their flights early on Friday due to communication problems, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, USA Today reported . The outage disrupted banks, health care systems and other businesses.

In the U.S., these airlines were among those who grounded flights less than an hour after Microsoft said it resolved a cloud-services-related outage that impacted several low-cost carriers.

Australia's government said the outage appeared to be linked to an issue at cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike, the USA Today report said.

In a post on X, CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said the outage was not a "security incident or cyberattack," but rather, it was connected to a "defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts." He said the issue has been "identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed."

Some airlines, like Southwest, were getting out of Milwaukee just fine, Mester said. Private flights — out of both Mitchell International and Timmerman Airport — were generally not affected, according to Mester. That is, unless they happen to require a software program impacted by the outage, he said.

Former President Trump made it out of Milwaukee unaffected by the outage. Just after 1:30 a.m. Friday, Donald Trump's deputy director of communications, Margo Martin, tweeted a video of the former president and his wife, former first lady Melania, waving goodbye and boarding a plane departing Milwaukee. They were in town for the RNC . Martin later shared a clip of the couple arriving at their destination.

What it's like at the Milwaukee airport Friday morning

Joe Breen, a delegate from Hartford, Connecticut, was flying Delta on his way home from the convention Friday. His flight through Detroit was originally scheduled for 9:20 a.m. but he was rebooked early Friday morning for a 5 p.m. flight through New York.

“I’m not really surprised. I’m 32 years in the aviation business, so … stuff happens,” Breen said.

When he arrived at the airport, Breen was able to check a bag but not able to print out his boarding pass. The staff at the ticketing desk told him to show his identification at TSA, but the TSA agents told him he was not able to go through security without a boarding pass, Breen said. So he sat down and called his wife to update her on the situation.

“I’m not really too upset. They have nine hours to work it all out, so in nine hours they should be able to generate a boarding pass,” Breen said.

Congressman Greg Steube, who represents the 17th district of Florida, said his staffer called the Capitol desk at Delta but still had to wait for an hour on the phone. His family’s first flight was delayed, and their second flight out of Atlanta was canceled. If they don’t get on a flight, their other option is a 20-hour drive home.

“I would rather get closer to home,” Steube said. “There’s gonna be more flights out of Atlanta tomorrow than out of Milwaukee.”

Delvin Vaughan, who was accompanying the Tennessee delegation as a guest, had his 10:15 a.m. Delta flight delayed to 11:45 a.m. When he checked in, most of the Delta kiosks were working and he was able to print a boarding pass.

Despite the delays, Vaughan said, the airport was far less busy than the Atlanta airport, where they usually fly.

Others turned to other airlines for help or were lucky enough to avoid travel issues altogether.

William Oden was flying Southwest back home from the RNC. The South Carolina delegate was able to check a bag and print a boarding pass without issue, but he heard other delegates in his hotel were having issues. Some had their flights rebooked until Saturday, Oden said.

“I trust Southwest,” he said.

By 10 a.m., the Delta line stretched past the Southwest desk, as the Southwest line was growing. Jeff Burns, a delegate from California, rebooked an evening flight with Southwest after his morning Delta flight was canceled.

“It’s been a great week but a long week and I’m just ready to get home,” Burns said. “Now (there’s) seemingly very little avenue to get rebooked.”

If I'm flying today, what should I do?

Anyone flying out of Milwaukee Friday should check their flight status before leaving for the airport, Mester said in an email.

Mester also recommended that people sign up for alerts from the specific airline they're traveling on. That can typically be done via an airline's app or by signing up for text alerts.

"If their flight is delayed or canceled, they should not come to the airport and should instead keep in touch with their airline for further information," Mester said in an email.

Amtrak in Milwaukee, Chicago not impacted by the communication outage

An Amtrak spokesman in Chicago said there were some problems processing credit card payments earlier Friday, but that was resolved. He said rail service in Chicago and Milwaukee had not been affected by the communication outage. If issues would arise, that will be posted on the Amtrak website.

Media companies, banks and telecoms firms around the world were reporting systems outages Friday that were disrupting their operations, USA Today reported .

Rick Barrett of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.

USA Today contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Flights canceled, delayed at Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport on one of its busiest travel days of the year