Microsoft outage causes flight delays and cancellations at Chicago airports

CHICAGO (CBS) — A world Microsoft outage caused by technical glitch at cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike forced airlines to cancel or delay hundreds of flights at Chicago’s O’Hare and Midway airports.

According to the Chicago Department of Aviation, as of 9:30 a.m., a total of 150 flights were canceled at O’Hare International Airport and seven were canceled at Midway International Airport.

Another 575 flights were delayed at O’Hare and 143 at Midway.

A United Airlines spokesperson said that while the company is resuming some flights, it expects schedule disruptions to continue throughout the day Friday. The company is also offering exemptions for customers who want to change their travel plans.

But while they work to restore their systems, many planes are being held up… at their departure airports.

Flights already in the air will continue to their destinations.

American Airlines said a technical issue with a supplier affected them, but they were able to restore operations around 6 a.m.

A family visiting Chicago from France planned to go to Washington DC for a few days before returning to France, but their flight to DC was cancelled.

“We’re not even sure if we’ll be taking the next flight, because we have airline tickets, so we’re on standby, so we’re waiting,” says Marie Naamie.

Airlines are urging travelers to closely monitor their websites and flight trackers before heading to the airport.