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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
IT outages are plaguing air travel. Here’s what to know
By Alexandra Skores, CNN
Updated:
8:56 AM EDT, Fri August 29, 2025
Source: CNN
When a United Airlines “technology issue” halted several thousand
flights a few weeks ago, it added another incident to a cascade of
problems the airlines and national aviation system have seen in recent
years.
Southwest Airlines had one of the most significant technology meltdowns
in recent aviation history three years ago, during Christmas, when crew
scheduling software failed, stranding passengers, their belongings and
crew members all over the country.
Since then, the US has seen multiple affecting the federal computer
system that sends alerts to pilots about conditions that could affect
the safety of their flights. Plus airplanes have been grounded by tech
issues affecting various airlines and the more wide-reaching
CrowdStrike software glitch that’s been described as the
These operational interruptions, while disruptive to passengers, happen
because airlines and aviation officials see safety as paramount, said
Eash Sundaram, a tech investor and venture capital and digital
executive who previously served as executive vice president and chief
digital and technology officer at JetBlue Airways.
“The moment the airline doesn’t have an IT system, they shut down
the process,” said Sundaram.
United’s outage earlier this month was resolved within a few hours
and the airline implemented delays and cancellations to return
operations to normal.
But it shows that commercial air travel for the roughly that take to
the sky each day in the United States can be a complex dance, requiring
technology that tracks everything from crew members and aircraft to the
weight of planes to be running correctly. And if any one of these
systems gives out, it can have a cascading effect.
While there’s no centralized data tracking tech outages across the
national aviation system, “these software problems do happen far more
often than anyone would like,” said Henry Harteveldt, president of
Atmosphere Research Group and a travel industry analyst.
Aviation analysts and experts say it’s not a one-size-fits-all
solution when it comes to fixing the technology.
What’s the solution?
Sundaram said the very complex systems that often go down in these
situations are owned or created by an individual airline. Each airline
tends to run on its own system.
“Delta has its own crew management system, and American has its own
crew management system … Nothing is common,” he said. “This is a
fundamental issue in the industry.”
He pointed to operating systems, the “backbone” systems that
support crew, the aircraft and weight and balance systems, as something
that could be more universal for airlines. Commercial systems, such as
e-commerce sites or check-in kiosks, could remain differentiated by
each airline, he said.
“Why can’t four or five airlines come together to build it?”
Sundaram said. “Why can’t Google invest in it, or why can’t
Microsoft invest in it? Large airlines tend to invest on their own, and
they build their own stuff, and once they build it, they don’t
upgrade it for years, because, you know, it works.”
Until it doesn’t.
United’s problem a few weeks ago stemmed from an issue with the
airline’s weight and balance computer system, known as Unimatic, and
was unrelated to recent cybersecurity concerns in the industry, the
company said. It’s not clear what caused the problem.
The airline hasn’t been a stranger to disruption this year, after
multiple air traffic control communications outages impacted its
massive operations at
The is currently underway, with a $12.5 billion down payment secured in
President Trump’s landmark tax and spending cuts bill passed earlier
this year.
Despite the chaos at Newark, the internal systems for United ran great,
said Harteveldt.
“It could be that they were doing some kind of upgrade to the system,
or it could be, again, that there was some kind of connectivity issue
that caused the weight and balance system to go off, or something like
that, but I don’t believe that the problem was triggered by some
summer travel volumes,” he said.
This week, an air traffic control frequency outage grounded flights
into Newark. The ground stop was lifted quickly, but flights were
delayed due to “equipment issues” in the Philadelphia TRACON
responsible for Newark arrivals and departures. The FAA has previously
said Newark’s technology problems .
But airlines’ own technology systems are in play, too.
Harteveldt said airlines have been investing in technology, but it’s
not always the case that every single airline is running the “latest
and greatest software.”
As with any technology, upgrades need to be made from time to time.
Recent technology outages
One of the largest and most catastrophic technology meltdowns was
Southwest’s in 2022. The ripple effect of systems failing led to and
. The airline’s reputation was damaged, and it had to make efforts to
earn customers back.
Southwest unveiled an after the meltdown which called for increasing
the availability of winter equipment and staffing at some airports,
investing in technology to help it quickly restart operations during
extreme weather and improving communication and decision-making
processes across departments that handle flight operations
Since then, passengers have seen several outages from various airlines,
causing ground stops, ground delays and other disruptions.
What’s important to remember, according to Harteveldt, of Atmosphere
Research Group, is that when the FAA tells an airline that a technology
issue poses a safety issue, the airline puts safety first and complies
with the FAA’s request to ground flights. That’s when travelers are
disrupted by flight delays or cancellations.
“(It’s) not an easy decision, and definitely not fun for anyone on
those canceled flights,” he said.
shortly after Southwest’s meltdown, the FAA’s NOTAM system
experienced an outage. The system sends alerts to pilots to let them
know of conditions that could affect the safety of their flights. It is
separate from the air traffic control system that keeps planes a safe
distance from each other, but it’s another critical tool for air
safety.
FAA issues are external to airlines. However, they impact passengers
just as much, if not more, because they can impact the national system
for all pilots.
Southwest saw another issue with a “firewall failure,” leading to
more flights being halted. United Airlines delayed its flights due to
an “equipment outage.” After a brief stop, flights resumed.
The reasons these problems happen vary, according to Harteveldt, but
they happen too often.
“No airline wants to have a software problem that causes a ground
stop to occur, or any other problem that grounds the airline,” he
said.
Alaska Airlines paused flights after the carrier experienced “an
issue while performing an upgrade” to the system that calculates
weight and balance.
But that didn’t even scratch the surface of what came during the
summer of 2024.
A software update for Microsoft Windows operating systems issued by the
cybersecurity firm that unfolded in July, disrupting airlines, banks,
schools and more during the busy summer travel season. Delta Air Lines
was hit the hardest, while American Airlines and United Airlines also
were impacted. The incident .
Delta addressed the situation with to passengers and other measures,
but Delta and CrowdStrike before the matter landed in court.
American Airlines issued a nationwide ground stop after experiencing a
“vendor technology issue.”
Those two incidents happening during peak travel periods where
travelers were passing through airports led to great levels of
disruption.
It’s hard to say definitively why these problems happen, said Helane
Becker, president of HRBAviation Consultants. In peak periods of
travel, TSA records close to or over 3 million people passing through
security checkpoints.
“It may be happening as much (as years past), but it affects more
people when it does happen,” she said, noting the technology
incidents often cost airlines tens of millions of dollars.
2025 started off with a NOTAM system outage
“There’s a process in place right now to get this system fixed. We
want to expedite that and get this new system in place,” said Sean
Duffy, Department of Transportation Secretary to CNN at the time.
“This is an old system that needs to be upgraded.”
That NOTAM outage came just days after a , which caused many passengers
to grow hesitant towards flying.
Alaska issued a ground stop for an IT outage, stranding some passengers
on planes. A few hours later, however, it was lifted.
Becker points to heightened attention to aviation safety since the , a
in Toronto and other incidents in the airspace.
With all that in mind, airlines are continuing to invest in technology
and maintaining safety, she said, but it’s not always publicized.
“I feel like, in a lot of ways, they’re playing catch up, and I
think that … that’s an issue that they have to address,” Becker
said. “I always have felt that airlines are always running to the
next problem versus getting ahead of the problem.”
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