When United Airlines passengers began alerting them about technology halting that was disrupting flights earlier this month, many definitely felt the sense of deja vu.
After all, it was the third glitch for months on major US airlines, with over 60 flights cancelled before it was resolved, another 1,000 flights delayed, affecting about 35% of the airline’s daily schedule that day.
Earlier this year, United, which was blazing the technical issues related to air traffic control in Newark, quickly reassuring its customers that operations would soon return to normal, and within a week it was old news. However, this time it was on Unimatic, one of the carrier systems, a legacy mainframe program that dates back to the 1970s.
In fact, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has recently been criticized for relying on aging systems for air traffic control, but some airline experts have pointed out that industries, including the airline itself, are slow to upgrade the technologies their businesses rely on.
“The big question is why when the country comes in terms of technological advancement, it’s canceling more flights than ever because of these outages,” says William McGee, senior travel fellow at the American Economic Freedom Project. “It doesn’t seem to be investing the resources we need to maintain our technology based on what we’re seeing.”
If these meltdowns occur during the busy summer season, fuller flights make it even more difficult to recover and accommodate stuck passengers, McGee noted. In each recent case, the actual high-tech glitch was fixed within a few hours, but the effects remained at least the next day.
Snafus’ latest spiches began on June 27th. This began when American Airlines flights were grounded across the US as the flight information and communications system that threw a wrench into the carrier’s schedule when gate agents were unable to board passengers and blocked the pilot from accessing flight plans. Then, on July 20th, Alaska Airlines was forced to ground an entire fleet of about 200 aircraft due to a software halt that lasted about three hours.
In all three recent cases, airlines struggle to point out that the issue is not related to cybersecurity. So, does that mean that, like other technologies, older systems tend to break down?
“Airlines operate in such a complex business that they operate hundreds, if not thousands of software programs,” said Henry Harteveldt, travel industry analyst at Atmosphere Research. “But what concerns me in these examples is that it appears there was no backup system that could keep things going when the primary system failed.”
He said airlines regularly upgrade legacy systems, but they are still behind. “They can’t keep kicking the road. After all, this is a huge effort and not something to update their smartphones.” Like many industries, airlines rely on software vendors for updates and maintenance, and break-down updates can quickly turn into major disruption given the scale and scope of their operations.
In fact, the warning signs were there for a while. Filming an epic meltdown at the Delta Air Line last year. This has resulted in the cancellation of over 7,000 flights over the five-day period in July 2024, disrupting travel plans for around 1.3 million passengers. The issue was caused by a failed software update at cybersecurity company Crowdstrike, which affected other airlines, but Delta passengers were hit hardest. The airline claims it lost $500 million in out-of-pocket costs caused by the disruption.
Delta then sued Cloud Strike for damages and penalties. The incident is still ongoing, with both sides exchanging barbs for liability for the catastrophe. CrowdStrike responded to the lawsuit by arguing that the airline’s slow recovery from the episode was due to “the failure to modernize the outdated IT infrastructure.” Delta disputed the claim, claiming that in recent years it has invested billions in cutting-edge technology.
The incident, in addition to the catastrophic technological misactions at Southwest Airlines last year, prompted some members of Congress to call on the Department of Transport to investigate the status of their aviation technology during their unfortunately winter holiday trips. However, the recent series of glitches have hardly reacted to Washington this year.
“Air travelers should expect these types of disruptions to continue,” says Joe Brancatelli, a business travel expert who runs the website Joesentme.com. But he said United, for one, is treating the issue as something within its control, covering costs like meals and hotels for customers they need during last week’s delay.
He offers the following tips on what travelers can do to protect their trip:
“I’ve always got a Plan B,” Blancatelli said. If your flight is scrubbed, don’t leave the house without knowing what your options are. If possible, try not to check your bags in case you need to switch to another flight.
The day the airline automatically offers to send your tickets to another carrier is no longer able to make you faster to your destination, he said, “But you can always ask.”
Please check ahead of time about the airline’s policies to handle the interruption and use the latest DOT airline customer service dashboard for each carrier that is undecided.
If you are traveling abroad, be familiar with the European Union’s rules of compensate passengers for delays.
AFAR has compiled an extensive guide on what to do as soon as your fight is cancelled or delayed.
