Microsoft IT outage live: Dozens more flights cancelled across UK as CrowdStrike issue recovery tool released

Dozens more holiday flights have been cancelled across the UK , resulting in a third day of travel chaos for airline passengers following CrowdStrike ’s botched software update.

After hundreds of flights were grounded by the global Microsoft IT outage on Friday, knock-on delays have continued through the weekend, with easyJet so far cancelling 24 flights at London Gatwick and British Airways cancelling a dozen flights at London Heathrow on Sunday.

It comes as Microsoft released a recovery tool to help repair Windows machines hit by the glitch after the company disclosed that 8.5 million devices were affected. The tool is designed to aid in quickly recovering impacted machines via a bootable USB drive.

Meanwhile, the Australian home affairs minister, Clare O’Neil, revealed on Sunday that CrowdStrike has told the federal government it is “now close to rolling out an automatic fix”, which would enable systems to return online.

However, IT experts have warned it could take weeks for global tech infrastructure to fully recover.

The massive disruption has included thousands of flight delays and cancellations . Hospitals, GPs, pharmacies, banks, supermarkets and millions of businesses have also been impacted .