IT Outages Continue to Disrupt Airlines and U.S. Air Travel

Technology outages are increasingly disrupting U.S. air travel, grounding flights and stranding passengers as airlines and regulators struggle with outdated systems and fragmented digital infrastructure.

When a recent United Airlines “technology issue” halted thousands of flights, it became just the latest in a series of IT meltdowns that have plagued aviation. Southwest Airlines suffered one of the most notorious collapses during Christmas 2022, when crew scheduling software failed and left passengers, luggage, and crew scattered nationwide. Since then, the U.S. has faced repeated disruptions: outages in the FAA’s Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) system, multiple airline-specific IT failures, and even the CrowdStrike software glitch of 2024—described as the largest IT outage in history.

Aviation experts stress that safety always comes first. “The moment the airline doesn’t have an IT system, they shut down the process,” said Eash Sundaram, former JetBlue technology chief. But the complexity of airline operations—tracking crews, aircraft, routes, and weight systems—means even a small software failure can cascade into massive delays.

One major problem is fragmentation. Each airline runs its own crew management, scheduling, and weight-and-balance systems with little standardization. “Delta has its own crew management system, and American has its own … Nothing is common,” Sundaram explained. Analysts argue that universal backbone systems—similar to those in e-commerce—could reduce failures, but airlines resist shared solutions, often clinging to outdated systems until they break.

The list of recent incidents is long: Southwest’s firewall failure in 2023, Alaska’s weight-and-balance upgrade crash in 2024, Delta’s lawsuit after the CrowdStrike meltdown, and American’s nationwide vendor outage on Christmas Eve. FAA systems, too, remain vulnerable, with another NOTAM outage recorded in early 2025.

The consequences are costly. Millions of passengers face delays and cancellations, while airlines lose tens of millions of dollars per outage. “They’re playing catch up,” said Helane Becker of HRBAviation Consultants, noting that airlines often react to crises instead of building resilient systems ahead of time.

With more than 3 million people flying daily in the U.S., analysts warn that aviation’s digital backbone needs urgent modernization. As Becker put it, “No airline wants a software problem that grounds flights—but it’s happening far too often.”

Sources: AirGuide Business airguide.info, bing.com