Porter Airlines says ‘operations restarting’ after global tech outage caused cancelled flights

A now-resolved global technology outage that caused disruptions worldwide early Friday morning forced Porter Airlines to cancel flights until the afternoon.

The issue grounded flights, knocked banks offline, and shut down media outlets on Friday, causing a massive disruption that affected companies and services worldwide.

Microsoft 365 said the outage “was mitigated” by early afternoon and that previously impacted Microsoft 365 apps and services had recovered.

“Flights continue to arrive and depart at the airport. As of now, Air Canada, Westjet, Sunwing, and Flair operations have not been affected,” Toronto Pearson wrote on X. “We’re still seeing issues with major American airlines [Delta, American, United] as well as Porter Airlines. If you’re travelling or picking up loved ones this morning, please check the flight status with your airline.”

One traveller awaiting news about a Porter flight at Pearson told CityNews she was basically left in the dark.

“I’m trying to get to Edmonton to see our son who is in the army, so i guess we are stuck here,” Gioia said. “I’m not getting any information.”

“It makes you want to go back to the old days when it was all paper work and you didn’t have (technical) crashes like this.”

Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport confirmed that the global outage disrupted some airlines and that flight delays and cancellations were possible. They asked travellers to contact airlines directly for information.

Porter Airlines announced it was initially cancelling all flights until noon but extended that until 3 p.m. on Friday “due to third-party systems outages affecting global industries.”

At around 2:30 p.m. Porter said “operations are restarting.”

Operations are restarting after today’s third-party system outage affecting multiple global industries.

As systems come online, passengers may check their current flight status on https://t.co/dKln1auJWV or via our mobile app.

— Porter Airlines (@porterairlines) July 19, 2024

Toronto Pearson noted that travellers may notice the terminals are busier than usual, as the airport anticipates connecting 135,000 passengers on Friday.

Andrew Breeding, who was scheduled to fly Porter home to Los Angeles on Friday after a business trip to Toronto, told The Canadian Press his flight out of the city’s Billy Bishop Airport had been rescheduled for later in the day.

“I’m just trying to be understanding,” he said.

WestJet, Air Canada say airlines not impacted

Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike says the issue believed to be behind the outage was not a security incident or cyberattack.

WestJet said it’s aware of the global outage impacting Microsoft products and continues to monitor the situation closely.

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“At this time, there has been no direct impact on WestJet systems or operations, and any flight cancellations across our network are unrelated to the outage,” WestJet wrote on X.

Air Canada said there was no major impact to its operations.

NAV CANADA, which operates Canada’s air traffic control and civil air navigation system, said the global IT outage had not affected its systems.

“We are working closely with our industry partners to understand how we can best support their operations and passengers. Passengers should check with their airlines for their flight status,” NAV CANADA wrote on X.

More than 300 flights were delayed, and more than 100 flights were cancelled so far on Friday at the three major airports in the New York City area — JFK, LaGuardia and Newark Liberty in New Jersey.

CBSA partial systems outage

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) said it experienced a partial systems outage of its telephone reporting system, which is used by small aircraft passengers and boaters. The issue has since been resolved.

“The CBSA worked urgently with its partners and service providers to mitigate any disruptions and restore full service as quickly as possible. We are continuing to monitor further potential impacts. No CBSA systems are affected at this time,” it said in a statement.

UHN affected, TTC operating as normal

The University Health Network (UHN), which oversees Princess Margaret, Toronto General, Toronto Rehab, Toronto Western, West Park Healthcare Centre and The Michener Institute of Education, said the worldwide CrowdStrike outage did impact some of its systems.

“We continue to restore systems impacted by the CrowdStrike outage. Clinical activity continues, although some delays are possible. In instances where an appointment may need to be rescheduled, patients will be contacted by their care team,” UHN wrote on X.

Unity Health hospital sites are operating normally.

Toronto police confirmed with CityNews their operations were not impacted.

The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) said it was aware of the outage.

“No immediate impact on our service with signal and safety critical systems up and running,” the TTC wrote on X. “If things change, we will let customers know.”

The tech outage is not affecting race weekend at the Honda Indy in Toronto.