Flight delays and cancellations continue Saturday but in lower numbers

Airlines made progress toward containing the fallout from a tech outage that disrupted global travel Friday, though some flight delays and cancellations extended into Saturday.

In all, about 3,400 flights to, from and within the United States were canceled Friday, according to FlightAware, a company that tracks flight information. That made it the worst day of the year for flight cancellations, beating Jan. 15 when airlines besieged by bad winter storms canceled nearly 3,200 flights in the United States.

Delays and cancellations Saturday appeared on track to be much lower than Friday. Airlines had canceled about 1,600 flights as of midafternoon, with Delta Air Lines and United Airlines among the hardest hit, according to FlightAware.

“Delta teams in airports, on board flights, on the phones and in messaging are working tirelessly to care for customers as the airline works to put flight crews and aircraft back in position following the disruption,” the airline said in a statement. Most of the flight cancellations Saturday were concentrated in the morning and early afternoon, Delta said.

In a statement, United said, “Most of our technology systems have been restored and our reliability is improving, although we will continue to see cancellations and delays this weekend.” It added, “Our customer service teams in call centers and airports are working significant overtime” to help passengers, including offering “hotel and food vouchers when needed.”

Several carriers said they would waive fees and fare differences or offer refunds for affected passengers. The Transportation Department said that carriers may also have to compensate some travelers for food, lodging and transport.

In a statement Saturday, American Airlines said it had fully recovered from the outage, with cancellations totaling “less than 1% of our total operation.”

The outage Friday was caused when CrowdStrike, a widely used cybersecurity provider, issued a flawed software update to Microsoft devices. Soon after, airlines and many other businesses and institutions began suffering technical failures. For airlines, a wide range of systems were affected, including those that calculate aircraft weight, check in customers, issue boarding passes and manage call center phone lines.

The problems for airlines peaked early Friday morning, with most major U.S. airlines having resumed flying by the start of the workday. But the early disruption continued to reverberate throughout the day.

Widespread outages like the one Friday can quickly destabilize an airline’s operations. When flights are canceled, pilots and flight attendants may miss or arrive late to their next assigned trips. Aviation regulations also limit how many consecutive hours crews can work. As a result, airlines are forced to find and assign other pilots and attendants to take over, possibly leading to further delays.

Delta had canceled about 31% of its scheduled flights by the end of the day Friday, while United had scrapped 22% and American Airlines had canceled about 10%, according to FlightAware. But some airlines emerged relatively unscathed. Southwest Airlines and Alaska Airlines each canceled only a handful of flights.

On Friday afternoon, Todd and Diane Keiller, a couple from the Boston suburbs, sipped beers at a small bar at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina, a major East Coast hub, and tried to make their three-hour delay feel less oppressive. They were on an American Airlines flight to Grand Rapids, Michigan, that was delayed while the airline waited for a flight crew.

They had arrived at Boston Logan International Airport early Friday morning to a chaotic scene: The crowd at the security checkpoint was so thick that a Transportation Security Administration agent accidentally handed Todd Keiller’s driver’s license to someone else who walked away with it.

The agency later reviewed security tapes to track down the man who had his license.

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