Air cargo operations are still recovering from the IT disruption that saw computer systems malfunction at airlines and airports worldwide. The Microsoft IT outage was triggered by a software update from cyber security company Crowdstrike.
Heathrow Airport, the UK’s busiest air cargo hub, experienced technology problems, though it declined to comment on air cargo operations specifically. The Airport stated on Twitter that it was working with airport colleagues to minimise the impact of the global IT outage to clients.
Meanwhile, Heathrow-based IAG Cargo commented: “Following the large-scale IT outage impacting Microsoft systems, some of our operations may experience minor disruptions today. Our teams are working to minimise the impact and ensure cargo affected is on its way as soon as possible.”
According to a Reuters account, Hong Kong International Airport has resumed normal operations, as reported by Chinese state media.
In a LinkedIn post, Saudia Cargo announced that its operations remained smooth despite the global IT glitch.
In Africa, Ethiopian Airlines provided an update via LinkedIn, stating that it is not currently experiencing any disruptions to its IT systems at its headquarters or any impact on its flight operations.
In Europe, cargo hub Amsterdam Airport Schiphol confirmed it had been affected by the IT issues. Schiphol mentioned on Twitter, “The outage has been largely resolved and systems are back up and running.”
Lufthansa Cargo said on its website that cargo handling operations are impacted, including at Frankfurt and Munich airports. They said that they were working at full speed to rectify the disruption with the aim of continuing to offer stable solutions for the transportation of freight.
Luxembourg headquartered Cargolux said some of its services had been affected, but this did not include flights. “We are currently experiencing disruption of some of our services due to a Global 3rd party IT outage, which is out of our control. Our flights are not impacted,” said the cargo airline.
US airlines have also been affected, including Delta, United and American Airlines.
Delta said in an update over the weekend: “All Delta flights are paused as we work through a vendor technology issue.” Delta later announced that it has resumed some flights and has issued a travel waiver.
American Airlines announced that it has safely re-established its operations, although the status of its air cargo ground handling operations is not yet clear.
After initially posting an error message on its website, United Airlines reported that while most of its systems have recovered, the airline continues to experience some operational disruptions, including flight delays and cancellations.
United Cargo, the cargo division of United Airlines, provided an update, stating, “Significant progress has been made in restoring our network. Because of this, we are making adjustments to our previous restrictions.”
Amidst the Microsoft global outage, CEO Satya Nadella provided an update on Twitter, stating, “We are aware of this issue and are working closely with CrowdStrike and across the industry to provide customers technical guidance and support to safely bring their systems back online.”
Commenting on the issue leading ocean and air freight rate benchmarking and analytics platform, Xeneta’s Chief Airfreight Officer, Niall van de Wouw said “Air supply chains are highly complex, so a global disruption of this scale could have a severe impact. Planes and cargo are not where they are supposed to be, and it will take days or even weeks to fully resolve.”
Latest data from Xeneta shows that air cargo supply chains were already under pressure prior to the IT failure. Global demand in June rose by +13% compared to the same month in 2023, continuing an upward trend seen throughout 2024 to date. At the same time, air freight supply has increased by only +3% year-on-year.
Also see this related article from our archives: Air Service Brisbane to Dallas Nonstop
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