ST. LOUIS — Travelers at St. Louis Lambert International Airport and airports around the country arrived for flights this morning to find cancelations and closures Friday due to an ongoing tech outage. A spokesperson for Lambert said the airport has returned to "normal" operations, but cancellations and delays are expected to continue throughout Friday.
Several major airlines in the U.S. and around the globe were grounded completely for hours because of a major technology outage affecting Windows-based systems, leaving millions of travelers stranded. In the U.S., the FAA said Thursday night that United, American, Delta and Allegiant had all been grounded by the outage, though the airlines have begun saying Friday that service was coming back online.
In St. Louis, St. Louis Lambert International Airport posted on social media that the FAA issued a ground stop and urged travelers to check with their airline before arriving at the airport. Click here to find contact information for the airlines that fly out of Lambert.
As of 6 p.m., several flights were still canceled or delayed in and out of St. Louis.
If you are flying into or out of St. Louis Lambert International Airport, you can check the status of your flight by clicking here.
Will Becker, a spokesman for St. Louis Lambert International Airport, said the airport does not use CrowdStrike services, so its systems were not affected by the outage, but some airlines were.
Southwest, which flies out of Terminal 2, wasn't impacted because they use a different system than Crowdstrike.
Becker says United Airlines experienced the most issues, but most of them have been resolved. He said as of 3 p.m. Friday afternoon, the airline was experiencing about a two-hour delay on inbound and outbound flights.
The other airlines are no longer reporting major issues and have returned to normal operations.
The check-in counters in Terminal 1 were packed early Friday morning, and many people showed up just to find out their trip was delayed or canceled.
5 On Your Side talked to several families and groups whose flights were delayed over 12 hours.
People kept their eyes peeled on the arrivals and departures board to check their flight status throughout the whole day, including Morgan Kruse.
Kruse and her friend got to Lambert at 4 a.m. and found out her 6 a.m. flight was canceled. She was hoping her new flight at 7 p.m. would take off as scheduled, getting her to New York at midnight, nearly 15 hours later than she originally planned.
"It's been a little annoying. We're trying to stay positive because we're getting ready to start the trip. We did have flight insurance so that's why I think they rebooked us right away. So we'll see. Right now, it's still scheduled to take off," Kruse said.
Lamanda Heil was on her way to Miami for a family vacation Friday morning when she found out her Delta flight had been delayed more than seven hours. Her new flight was scheduled to fly out at 7 p.m.
"It does kind of irk me a little bit that we have to wait until 1 o'clock in the morning to get to Miami. But we do have a two-week vacation, so one day is not too bad. Just fingers crossed that it's not canceled. That will be devastating because we're going down to see my grandmother," Heil said.
Unfortunately, a few hours later, Heil found out that her flight had been canceled completely. She said, "I'd like to be up in the clouds right now. It's frustrating, but there's nothing we can really do."
Larissa Wandro and her family are traveling to Montana. Their American Airlines flight was canceled this morning, which forced them to cancel several of their plans because they don't touch down until after midnight.
"We had to rearrange different reservations that we already had. We're going to Glacier National Park, and with that, you have to have passes and you're only allowed into the park on certain days and certain times. It kind of puts a damper on what our plans were originally. And our rentals, rental vehicles, and places to stay. And getting refunds that you didn't anticipate," Wandro said.
Becker said travelers should expect delays and cancellations to pop up throughout the rest of the day.
Southwest, the airline with the most flights through St. Louis, had not commented on the outage on its website or social media pages as of 8 a.m.
Other major airlines out of Lambert have commented.
American Airlines said it had re-established operations at 4:45 Friday morning.
Delta said it had resumed some flights as of 7 a.m. but said additional delays and cancellations were expected throughout the day. The airline issued a travel waiver for flights departing on Friday. It urged customers to manage their flights on Delta.com or the Fly Delta app.
Flight tracking website FlightAware showed that almost 11,000 flight delays into, out of or around the U.S. had been reported Friday evening.
Nearly 3,000 flights in the U.S. had been canceled completely, the website shows.
The U.S. Department of Transportation has a page dedicated to airline cancellations and delays with more information about your rights and answers to frequently asked questions.