Flying on American, Southwest, United, JetBlue or Alaska Today? Check Your Flight. They All Had Problems This Morning
A computer system problem grounded flights across the country this morning.
By Bill Murphy Jr.Contributing editor, Inc.com
@BillMurphyJr
American, Southwest, United, JetBlue, and Alaska Airlines, along with smaller regional carriers, were forced to ground flights across the United States this morning after a computer system error that affected many U.S. airlines.
The apparent problem, several airlines said, stemmed from a shared system that many airlines use -- rather than any kind of simultaneous problem encountered by multiple airlines on their individually operated computer systems.
Airline spokespeople at JetBlue and American Airlines both told me this morning that they put the blame on a system run by a company called Aerodata.
A Federal Aviation Administration official also told The Washington Post that the Aeroplan system tracks "weight and balance of a plane," and is also "used in flight planning."
While it appears that most if not all of the flights are now cleared, and the problem resolved, airlines said they expected delays would likely reverberate across their schedules today.
So if you're flying anywhere in the United States today on a U.S. carrier, it would be a good idea to check your flight's status before heading to the airport.
Earlier, Southwest had said it grounded all fights across the United States for about 40 minutes Monday morning.
"We're working with customers on any impacts to their travel plans and we appreciate their understanding as we place nothing higher than the safe operation of every flight," a spokesman said.
At Delta, it appeared the problem might have been confined largely to regional airlines operating as Delta Connection, although a spokesperson advised via USA Today, " If you're on a flight departing soon, please check the status of your flight via the Fly Delta Mobile App or Delta.com."
Some reports said that JetBlue was most heavily affected, and as of about 8:30 this morning, the company told me in an email that it was still experiencing delays. At one point, it appeared the airline had grounded all flights due to the issue.
It appears the computer problem has been resolved as of about 9:30 a.m., but airlines expected some residual delays throughout the day as they work to get back on schedule.
United Airlines said about 150 of its flights were affected Monday morning.
"Some of our regional carriers experienced an issue with a flight planning program this morning that impacted operations, resulting in delays for select United Express flights. Our team worked quickly with our partners to resolve the issue," a spokeswoman for United told me.
Alaska Airlines also reportedly had delays, but the company did not respond to my request for comment this morning.
Earlier reports -- for example when the FAA reported via Twitter at about 7:42 a.m. simply that "several U.S. airlines" were "experiencing computer issues this morning" -- led to some concerns that the problems might have been happening simultaneously on each airline's separate systems.
While there's no word on what caused the Aerodata issue, the good news here seems to be that there's nothing like a concerted attack on multiple airlines' systems--along with the fact that the airlines apparently responded quickly, and were able to resolve it all.
Published on: Apr 1, 2019
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/tran...irlines/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.a6a7df6a8c3b
Software “Malfunction” Grounds More Than 46 Lufthansa Flights: Over 4,600 Passenger Affected
Mateusz Maszczynski
25th March 2019
A continuing software “malfunction” at Germany’s air traffic control (ATC) provider, DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung has forced airlines to cancel dozens of flights today. The German flag carrier, Lufthansa has been worst affected with over 46 flights at its Frankfurt hub cancelled and the travel plans of more than 4,600 passengers impacted. The airport operator has warned of delays and cancellations, with scenes of long queues emerging from the airport.
The ATC agency says it has reduced capacity by as much as 25% around Frankfurt am Main, Cologne Bonn, Stuttgart and Dusseldorf. The software glitch first started last Thursday but DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung doesn’t think a fix will be found until at least Wednesday or possibly even Thursday 28th March.
In a statement, the agency said its technicians were “working hard to analyze the error.” The cause of the issue is the display of electronic control strips, which have stopped working properly. DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung was keen to point out that all other ATC systems were working normally and that safety had not been compromised.
A spokesperson explained that the ‘control strips’ “provide scheduling information to air traffic controllers and contain all important data for the course of the flight, such as type of aircraft, route, expected time of flight and other information. In addition to the radar data presentation, they provide the pilot with the essential information for his inspection activities.”
Operations at Frankfurt Airport were hampered even further on Friday morning after a drone was sighted near the airfield. Flights had to be grounded for around 30 minutes before police gave the all-clear – the airport Tweeted that everything was back to normal and that the incident hadn’t caused any “chaos” as was the case after a drone incident at Gatwick Airport in December.
Lufthansa was also forced to cancel hundreds of flights at Frankfurt Airport in August after a security breach led to the partial evacuation of what is Germany’s busiest airport. On that occasion, Lufthansa said over 7,000 had been affected after a French family were accidentally allowed into a secure airside area without first going through security.
Last year, flight delays and cancellations caused mainly by ATC problems across Europe cost Lufthansa €513 million. The airline suspects similar problems this year, which were in part caused by widespread strikes by air traffic controllers in France and Belgium.
Mateusz Maszczynski
https://www.rt.com/usa/455261-airline-outage-delays-stranded/
System failure: Thousands of passengers stranded as software glitch grounds flights across the US
Published time: 1 Apr, 2019 13:05
Multiple airlines are recovering from a computer glitch that left thousands of flights delayed and hundreds canceled across the US. Stranded passengers voiced their frustrations on social media.
The outage involved Aerodata, a computer program that records a plane’s weight and balance information necessary to grant clearance for takeoff, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Without the computer-generated paperwork, planes stayed grounded across the country early on Monday morning.
At least five airlines were affected: Delta, Southwest, American Airlines, Alaska Airlines and JetBlue. All in all, 1,442 flights were delayed and 151 canceled, according to FlightAware. New York’s LaGuardia Airport, Boston’s Logan International Airport, and Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport were the three worst affected hubs.
Grounded passengers tweeted their frustrations at the airlines.
The glitch was later resolved, but lingering delays are expected as the airlines resume normal operations.
The outage comes a week after technical issues with Sabre, a company handling ticketing and reservations for at least 300 airlines and 100 airports, forced multiple carriers to delay flights as staff manually checked in passengers.
https://www.rt.com/usa/455261-airline-outage-delays-stranded/
Flying on American, Southwest, United, JetBlue or Alaska Today? Check Your Flight. They All Had Problems This Morning A computer system problem grounded flights across the country this morning. By Bill Murphy Jr.Contributing editor, Inc.com @BillMurphyJr American, Southwest, United, JetBlue, and Alaska Airlines, along with smaller regional carriers, were forced to ground flights across the United States this morning after a computer system error that affected many U.S. airlines. The apparent problem, several airlines said, stemmed from a shared system that many airlines use -- rather than any kind of simultaneous problem encountered by multiple airlines on their individually operated computer systems. Airline spokespeople at JetBlue and American Airlines both told me this morning that they put the blame on a system run by a company called Aerodata. A Federal Aviation Administration official also told The Washington Post that the Aeroplan system tracks "weight and balance of a plane," and is also "used in flight planning." While it appears that most if not all of the flights are now cleared, and the problem resolved, airlines said they expected delays would likely reverberate across their schedules today. So if you're flying anywhere in the United States today on a U.S. carrier, it would be a good idea to check your flight's status before heading to the airport. Earlier, Southwest had said it grounded all fights across the United States for about 40 minutes Monday morning. "We're working with customers on any impacts to their travel plans and we appreciate their understanding as we place nothing higher than the safe operation of every flight," a spokesman said. At Delta, it appeared the problem might have been confined largely to regional airlines operating as Delta Connection, although a spokesperson advised via USA Today, " If you're on a flight departing soon, please check the status of your flight via the Fly Delta Mobile App or Delta.com." Some reports said that JetBlue was most heavily affected, and as of about 8:30 this morning, the company told me in an email that it was still experiencing delays. At one point, it appeared the airline had grounded all flights due to the issue. It appears the computer problem has been resolved as of about 9:30 a.m., but airlines expected some residual delays throughout the day as they work to get back on schedule. United Airlines said about 150 of its flights were affected Monday morning. "Some of our regional carriers experienced an issue with a flight planning program this morning that impacted operations, resulting in delays for select United Express flights. Our team worked quickly with our partners to resolve the issue," a spokeswoman for United told me. Alaska Airlines also reportedly had delays, but the company did not respond to my request for comment this morning. Earlier reports -- for example when the FAA reported via Twitter at about 7:42 a.m. simply that "several U.S. airlines" were "experiencing computer issues this morning" -- led to some concerns that the problems might have been happening simultaneously on each airline's separate systems. While there's no word on what caused the Aerodata issue, the good news here seems to be that there's nothing like a concerted attack on multiple airlines' systems--along with the fact that the airlines apparently responded quickly, and were able to resolve it all. Published on: Apr 1, 2019 Like this column? Sign up to subscribe to email alerts and you'll never miss a post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/tran...irlines/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.a6a7df6a8c3b Software “Malfunction” Grounds More Than 46 Lufthansa Flights: Over 4,600 Passenger Affected Mateusz Maszczynski 25th March 2019 A continuing software “malfunction” at Germany’s air traffic control (ATC) provider, DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung has forced airlines to cancel dozens of flights today. The German flag carrier, Lufthansa has been worst affected with over 46 flights at its Frankfurt hub cancelled and the travel plans of more than 4,600 passengers impacted. The airport operator has warned of delays and cancellations, with scenes of long queues emerging from the airport. The ATC agency says it has reduced capacity by as much as 25% around Frankfurt am Main, Cologne Bonn, Stuttgart and Dusseldorf. The software glitch first started last Thursday but DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung doesn’t think a fix will be found until at least Wednesday or possibly even Thursday 28th March. In a statement, the agency said its technicians were “working hard to analyze the error.” The cause of the issue is the display of electronic control strips, which have stopped working properly. DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung was keen to point out that all other ATC systems were working normally and that safety had not been compromised. A spokesperson explained that the ‘control strips’ “provide scheduling information to air traffic controllers and contain all important data for the course of the flight, such as type of aircraft, route, expected time of flight and other information. In addition to the radar data presentation, they provide the pilot with the essential information for his inspection activities.” Operations at Frankfurt Airport were hampered even further on Friday morning after a drone was sighted near the airfield. Flights had to be grounded for around 30 minutes before police gave the all-clear – the airport Tweeted that everything was back to normal and that the incident hadn’t caused any “chaos” as was the case after a drone incident at Gatwick Airport in December. Lufthansa was also forced to cancel hundreds of flights at Frankfurt Airport in August after a security breach led to the partial evacuation of what is Germany’s busiest airport. On that occasion, Lufthansa said over 7,000 had been affected after a French family were accidentally allowed into a secure airside area without first going through security. Last year, flight delays and cancellations caused mainly by ATC problems across Europe cost Lufthansa €513 million. The airline suspects similar problems this year, which were in part caused by widespread strikes by air traffic controllers in France and Belgium. Mateusz Maszczynski https://www.rt.com/usa/455261-airline-outage-delays-stranded/ System failure: Thousands of passengers stranded as software glitch grounds flights across the US Published time: 1 Apr, 2019 13:05 Multiple airlines are recovering from a computer glitch that left thousands of flights delayed and hundreds canceled across the US. Stranded passengers voiced their frustrations on social media. The outage involved Aerodata, a computer program that records a plane’s weight and balance information necessary to grant clearance for takeoff, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Without the computer-generated paperwork, planes stayed grounded across the country early on Monday morning. At least five airlines were affected: Delta, Southwest, American Airlines, Alaska Airlines and JetBlue. All in all, 1,442 flights were delayed and 151 canceled, according to FlightAware. New York’s LaGuardia Airport, Boston’s Logan International Airport, and Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport were the three worst affected hubs. Grounded passengers tweeted their frustrations at the airlines. The glitch was later resolved, but lingering delays are expected as the airlines resume normal operations. The outage comes a week after technical issues with Sabre, a company handling ticketing and reservations for at least 300 airlines and 100 airports, forced multiple carriers to delay flights as staff manually checked in passengers. https://www.rt.com/usa/455261-airline-outage-delays-stranded/