by Last Friday’s CrowdStrike breach sent disruptions across the globe, with few sectors more affected than aviation. Due to the IT system outage, around 5,000 flights were cancelled, leaving 100,000 travelers stranded.
As normalcy returns, we look at another major disruption to air travel in the last few decades.
covid pandemic
March 2020
Chaos rating: 10/10
It was the month that changed everything. Within weeks, Covid went from a worrying item on the evening news to destroying the world as we knew it. And as lockdowns and mass panic spread across the globe, air travel was an inevitable casualty.
In the United States, flight cancellations reached their highest levels since 9/11. In April 2020 alone, American Airlines operated 137,000 scheduled flights. Closer to home, British Airways owner IAG cut flights by 75 percent, with Virgin Atlantic going even further at 80 percent.
Even today, industry experts say the long-tail impact of Covid remains to be seen. “Business travel has continued to decline, with airlines tackling what the industry calls VFR (or visiting friends and relatives),” says consultant and expert John Strickland.
volcanic eruptions in Iceland
April 2010
Chaos rating: 9/10
These days, the tongue-twisting maniac of Eyjafjallajökull is most likely to succeed as an impressive quiz answer. But back in the spring of 2010, the name of this Icelandic volcano was a curse word for travelers when it buried more than 100,000 flights.
Although the volcanic eruption is not exactly known in Iceland, this happened under a glacier, rapidly cooling the lava and splitting it into small particles of glass and ash that were then released into the atmosphere. That prompted concerns that the residue could damage jet engines as it swept across northern Europe.
After eight days of continent-wide closure, European airspace finally reopened on April 23, although further disruptions occurred on two days in May.
Bank holiday air traffic control glitch
August 2023
Chaos rating: 5/10
As if bank holiday getaways weren’t already stressful enough, last summer things escalated to a new level when 2,000 flights were canceled due to an air traffic control fault and hundreds of thousands of travelers were stranded.
Despite fears that the chaos was the result of a hostile cyber attack, the truth became more prosaic – and irritating. Data from a transatlantic flight caused the entire air traffic control system to accidentally short-circuit. The result was heavy disruption for two days.
Europe’s summer of post-Covid chaos
July 2022
Chaos rating: 7/10
After two of the most difficult years in aviation memory, 2022 was the year international travel would come back with a bang. With Covid finally over, travelers were ready for an epic getaway – but were the airports ready for them?
Not enough. After thousands of staff were laid off during the pandemic, Europe’s biggest airports were reeling from an influx of holidaymakers. Photos of security queues stretching out into airport car parks soon went viral on social media, with reports of hours-long security queues.
The scale of the problem would later be confirmed in a report from air traffic body Eurocontrol. During the summer, half of all European flights were delayed, and 7 percent were canceled altogether.
The oil price shock
October 1973
Chaos rating: 6/10
Going past the sepia-tinged images on social media, you might assume that vintage air travel was the picture of a very stress-free picture. But while cramped seats and baggage fees may be decades away, travelers still faced the occasional headache.
When a score of Arab nations decided to cut oil production to punish America in 1973, the price of the black stuff increased fivefold, hurting airlines and travelers alike.
It was particularly bad news for Pan Am, the world’s most glamorous airline at the time, which had recently upgraded its fleet to the gas-guzzling Boeing 747. Faced with higher overhead costs, the airline cut flights by about 25 percent and continued. heavy loss.
BA system breach
May 2017
Chaos rating: 3/10
The internet has revolutionized the way we travel. But what happens when the computer says no? In the spring of May 2017, British Airways found out the hard way when a power outage hit two data centers, grounding 672 flights over three days.
The outage led to the cancellation of 75,000 flights, with significant disruption at Heathrow and Gatwick. The eventual compensation bill was estimated at around £58 million, which was a warning to the aviation industry in general.
The millennium bug
December 1999
Chaos rating: 1/10
Looking back from the comfort of 2024, it is tempting to see the “bug of the millennium” with nostalgic nostalgia. But IT experts have a different view, pointing out that things would be very different if it weren’t for the hundreds of billions spent on upgrading the world’s computer systems.
However, the airline industry did not escape completely unscathed. After years of panicked speculation about the impact of Y2K, the disruption became a self-fulfilling prophecy as carriers were forced to cancel their flights for the New Year and passengers were too scared to book.
9/11 terror attack
September 2001
Chaos rating: 8/10
Given the scale of what happened that day, focusing on canceled flights is trivial – at least on a human level. But the unprecedented impact of 9/11 on air travel is the opposite: after the total shutdown of US airspace, more than 40,000 flights were grounded within 48 hours.
Civilian air traffic would finally resume on September 13, initially targeting the thousands of stranded flights forced to land at temporary destinations. Although security protocols were immediately increased, it would take two years for passenger numbers to recover, with a 6 percent drop in Americans flying home in 2002.
Boeing ground planes
January 2024
Chaos rating: 4/10
The viral video footage sent shivers down the spine of even the most confident flyers: a passenger flight forced to make an emergency landing after a large chunk of its outer shell was lost nearly 5,000m (16,000ft) above the ground.
After the disturbing incident, US regulators insisted that checks be put on all 171 of Boeing’s 737 Max 9s, which led to the cancellation of 2,000 flights across America. The plane was not yet in use in Europe, but that did not stop the continent moving quickly to ban it from its airspace.
The Gatwick drone
December 2018
Chaos rating: 5/10
Just as London’s second largest airport was preparing for one of the busiest weekends in the travel calendar, the control center received reports that two drones had been seen in the area, one of which had entered the airport complex itself.
Within minutes, authorities grounded all flights in case of a fatal collision. Over the next 48 hours 1,000 flights would be cancelled, leaving 140,000 passengers stranded before the Christmas holidays.
Given what was at stake, perhaps the travelers weren’t mad. But there’s just one problem: despite an £800,000 investigation and the unfortunate arrest of the two innocent drone enthusiasts (who later received £200,000 in compensation), no evidence of any drone was ever found…
