Porter Airlines says systems slowly coming back online after CrowdStrike outage

Porter Airlines says it is in the “early stages of returning to normal” operations after a global IT outage forced it to cancel a number of flights on Friday.

“The website will be restored when all systems are back online and automated passenger booking has begun,” the Canadian airline, which operates flights out of Toronto’s two airports, Pearson International and Billy Bishop.

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Porter cancelled all flights until 3 p.m. on Friday after the outage, caused by a software update issued by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike which affected any computer that runs Microsoft Windows and brought IT systems down worldwide.

It’s unclear if Porter flights will resume after 3 p.m.

The disruption to air travel reached beyond just Porter Airline, and some travellers in Toronto were left with their vacation plans up in the air as a result of the outage.

Zain Husain was supposed to leave for a friend’s wedding in Idaho at 7 a.m., but started encountering problems as soon as he went to check-in.

“They had some problems with check-in. There was maybe about 10 people or so in the line and that took about an hour-and-a-half before it got to me,” Husain said, noting the airline, United, didn’t say much about the outage at first.

“And then you're getting these reports that there's outages happening, things of that nature,” he said, adding that he’s since been booked on a later flight but that the situation was “very dicey.”

Another traveller, whose 10 a.m. Porter flight from Toronto to Halifax was cancelled, said communications from the company had been limited.

“They don't know what's going on,” Jennifer told CP24 Friday morning.

“We didn't know anything coming here. We saw the crowds were lined up and seeing ‘cancelled’ up on the [departures] board,” Irene, Jennifer’s travel companion, added.

Porter, which operates flights out of Pearson and Billy Bishop Airport, explained to CP24 that they’re unable to rebook flights while their systems are offline and they can't communicate with customers via email or text.

Initially, the airline said it would cancel flights until 12 p.m.

In its update Friday afternoon, Porter said communications are being drafted to advise passengers of updated flight bookings for those who had their flights cancelled.

“This will take a period of time, with new flights confirmed over a number of days due to high passenger volume,” the company said, adding that any passengers who needed to cancel their travel plans as a direct result of the outage will be offered a full refund.

Porter said further delays and cancellations are possible as the network recovers.

A number of American airlines were also affected by the outage, including the aforementioned United, American and Delta, resulting in a number of cancellations and delays.

Other Canadian airlines, such as Air Canada and WestJet, were not as affected by the IT incident. NAV Canada, which pilots rely on to navigate the skies, was also unaffected.

CrowdStrike has said the outage was not a security incident and systems are slowly coming back online.

This is a developing story. More to come.

With files from The Associated Press