Dozens more flights were cancelled at airports across England today as children were left ‘very upset’ as services recover from last Friday’s major global IT outage.
Ten flights were axed at Heathrow today as well as 11 at London City, ten at Gatwick and six at Manchester as airlines battled to try to get schedules back to normal.
A total of 38 flights were cancelled at England’s airports throughout the day, with British Airways and easyJet making up the majority with 18 and 10 respectively.
Arrivals from European cities such as Rome, Berlin and Zurich were among those axed as were others from Jamaica and US cities including Las Vegas and New York.
Among those suffering disruption today was Rich Rhodes whose 1pm BA flight from Heathrow to Miami was axed. He tweeted: ‘Got an email saying it’s cancelled and I’ve been rebooked, but no trace on new flight. Travelling with seven-year-old, help!’
A further passenger said their 6.05am Tui flight from Gatwick to Thessaloniki was ‘cancelled upon checking in suitcases’. He added: ‘Three very upset children at 4am.’
Also impacted was Giuli Cavaliere from London who posted on X: ‘EasyJet, our flight has been cancelled two hours before departure. There’s no flight today and for some reason we can’t book a flight tomorrow. We also can’t contact you on your customer service. What kind of a service is this? What about the duty of care to customers?’
It comes as NHS England warned of ‘delays’ to services but insisted that patients having appointments this week ‘should continue to attend unless told not to’.
Are you affected by flight disruption today? Please email: tips@dailymail.com
Passengers queue at check-in gates for British Airways flights at London Gatwick this morning
![Departing passengers face a long wait for check-in this morning at London Gatwick Airport](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/07/22/08/87611677-13658229-image-a-4_1721633262963.jpg)
Departing passengers face a long wait for check-in this morning at London Gatwick Airport
![](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/07/22/09/87614351-13658229-image-m-41_1721636305857.jpg)
Airline passengers wait in a queue at London Heathrow Airport’s Terminal Three this morning
![](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/07/22/09/87613727-13658229-image-a-31_1721635807467.jpg)
![](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/07/22/09/87613729-13658229-image-a-36_1721635832049.jpg)
![](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/07/22/09/87613735-13658229-image-a-33_1721635815004.jpg)
![](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/07/22/09/87613733-13658229-image-a-34_1721635818461.jpg)
![](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/07/22/09/87613731-13658229-image-a-32_1721635811678.jpg)
A flawed update rolled out by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike knocked many services offline around the world on Friday, causing flight and train cancellations and crippling some healthcare systems.
A fix was deployed for a bug in the update, which affected equipment running the Microsoft Windows operating system, as CrowdStrike’s chief executive George Kurtz said it would take ‘some time’ for systems to be fully restored.
Travel expert Simon Calder told Sky News this morning: ‘It was going to be the busiest weekend of the year for flights out of UK airports. In the end we had over 700 flights to, from and within the UK cancelled.
‘That means 100,000 people suddenly found out, maybe while they were still at home if they were lucky, otherwise while they were waiting at the gate, that their flight had been cancelled.’
He added that there had been a ‘ridiculous amount of nonsense talked about’ the rights of passengers since the disruption began.
Mr Calder said: ‘The very basic thing is that if your flight is cancelled, immediately the airline has to find you an alternative flight. It can’t say, as I’ve heard from countless travellers, ‘oh, we’ve got another one on Wednesday, we’ll put you on that’.
‘If there’s another flight on any airline via any routing that is going to get you home or get you to your destination for that, they have to buy that for you. If they are not prepared to buy it for you, you can buy it knowing that you will be able to claim it back.
‘And of course they are also required, while you’re waiting, to put you in a hotel and give you meals.’
He said this was ‘absolutely strict’ and the case for anyone flying from the UK, from Europe or from anywhere in the world on a British or European airline.
EasyJet told MailOnline that some of its disruption since Friday has been related to issues with air traffic control (ATC).
A spokeswoman said today: ‘EasyJet operated around 5,500 flights over this weekend, however some flights were unable to operate due to the impact of ATC staffing and capacity constraints as well as weather related ATC restrictions imposed across Europe yesterday.
‘This meant at first wave more than 50 per cent of our flights had an ATC restriction which inevitably led to delays and some cancellations later in the day as well as leaving some aircraft out of base this morning.
‘While this is outside of our control, we are sorry for the inconvenience caused and are doing all possible to minimise the impact on our customers, providing those on cancelled flights with options to rebook or receive a refund, as well as hotel accommodation and meals where needed.’
Meanwhile the British Medical Association (BMA) warned yesterday that normal GP service ‘cannot be resumed immediately’ after the outage caused a ‘considerable backlog’.
The trade union for doctors said GPs would ‘need time to catch up from lost work over the weekend’, adding that NHS England should ‘make clear to patients’ this was the case.
The BMA said its GP committee would continue to talk to NHS England and patient record system supplier EMIS to secure a ‘better system of IT back-up’ to ensure the ‘disaster’ was not repeated.
Across England, GP surgeries reported being unable to book appointments or access patient records last Friday as their EMIS system went down.
![Passengers queue at check-in gates for flights at London Gatwick Airport this morning](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/07/22/10/87615531-13658229-image-a-27_1721639146023.jpg)
Passengers queue at check-in gates for flights at London Gatwick Airport this morning
![Departing passengers face a long wait for check-in this morning at London Gatwick Airport](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/07/22/10/87615525-13658229-image-a-28_1721639149764.jpg)
Departing passengers face a long wait for check-in this morning at London Gatwick Airport
![Passengers queue at check-in gates for flights at London Gatwick Airport this morning](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/07/22/10/87615535-13658229-image-a-29_1721639152925.jpg)
Passengers queue at check-in gates for flights at London Gatwick Airport this morning
An NHS spokesperson said: ‘Systems are now back online, and patients with an NHS appointment this week should continue to attend unless told not to.
‘Thanks to the hard work of NHS staff throughout this incident we are hoping to keep further disruption to a minimum, however there still may be some delays as services recover, particularly with GPs needing to rebook appointments, so please bear with us.
‘It’s important that patients attend appointments as normal unless told otherwise. You can contact your GP in the usual way, or use your local pharmacy, NHS 111 online or call 111 for urgent health advice.’
Dr David Wrigley, deputy chairman of GPC England, the representative body for GPs at the BMA, said: ‘Friday was one of the toughest single days in recent times for GPs across England. Without a clinical IT system many were forced to return to pen and paper to be able to serve their patients.
![Departing passengers face a long wait for check-in this morning at London Gatwick Airport](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/07/22/10/87615529-13658229-image-a-30_1721639156973.jpg)
Departing passengers face a long wait for check-in this morning at London Gatwick Airport
![Passengers queue at check-in gates for flights at London Gatwick Airport this morning](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/07/22/10/87615533-13658229-image-a-31_1721639161043.jpg)
Passengers queue at check-in gates for flights at London Gatwick Airport this morning
‘While GPs and their teams worked hard to look after as many as they could, without access to the information they needed much of the work has had to be shifted into the coming week.
‘GPs have been pulling out all the stops this weekend to deal with the effects of Friday’s catastrophic loss of service and, as their IT systems come back online, we thank them and their staff for their hard work under exceptionally trying circumstances.
‘We also thank patients for bearing with general practice in this unprecedented situation.’
Dr Wrigley added: ‘The temporary loss of the EMIS patient record system has meant a considerable backlog.
‘Even if we could guarantee it could be fully fixed on Monday, GPs would still need time to catch up from lost work over the weekend, and NHSE (National Health Service England) should make clear to patients that normal service cannot be resumed immediately.
![Passengers in the South Terminal at London Gatwick Airport last Friday amid the IT outage](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/07/22/08/87612059-13658229-image-a-19_1721633974505.jpg)
Passengers in the South Terminal at London Gatwick Airport last Friday amid the IT outage
![Passengers wait at Edinburgh Airport last Friday as widespread IT outages affected airlines](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/07/22/08/87612039-13658229-image-a-18_1721633953135.jpg)
Passengers wait at Edinburgh Airport last Friday as widespread IT outages affected airlines
‘The BMA’s GP committee will continue our dialogue with both EMIS and NHSE, both to make sure that the coming week can be used to recover as quickly as possible and to urgently work on securing a better system of IT back-up so that this disaster is not repeated in future.’
Microsoft said CrowdStrike’s update affected 8.5million Windows devices.
Estimating the impact of the update, Microsoft said it had affected less than 1 per cent of all Windows machines.
‘While the percentage was small, the broad economic and societal impacts reflect the use of CrowdStrike by enterprises that run many critical services,’ the firm said in a statement.
‘This incident demonstrates the interconnected nature of our broad ecosystem – global cloud providers, software platforms, security vendors and other software vendors and customers.
‘It’s also a reminder of how important it is for all of us across the tech ecosystem to prioritise operating with safe deployment and disaster recovery using the mechanisms that exist.’
CrowdStrike’s Mr Kurtz apologised, saying he is ‘deeply sorry’ and made clear it was ‘not a security or cyber incident’.
![Passengers queue at Birmingham Airport last Friday amid the widespread IT outage](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/07/22/08/87612063-13658229-image-a-20_1721634000596.jpg)
Passengers queue at Birmingham Airport last Friday amid the widespread IT outage
![Passengers wait at Heathrow Airport last Friday as widespread IT outages affected airlines](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/07/22/08/87612111-13658229-Passengers_wait_at_Heathrow_Airport_last_Friday_as_widespread_IT-a-24_1721634141456.jpg)
Passengers wait at Heathrow Airport last Friday as widespread IT outages affected airlines
In a technical statement, CrowdStrike said a ‘sensor configuration’ had ‘triggered a logic error’ which the company said had been corrected.
Airports across the UK, including Gatwick, Heathrow, Manchester and Belfast said passengers should check with airlines for any delays or cancellations before travelling over the weekend.
Some 207 flights, equating to 6.7 per cent of all scheduled UK departures, were axed on Friday, with others delayed, while 201 flights due to land in the UK were cancelled.
Aviation analytics company Cirium said 6,855 flights, or 6.2 per cent of all those scheduled, were cancelled globally on Friday.
It added that 1,639 flights had been cancelled globally as of 10am on Saturday, including 23 flights departing from UK airports, equating to 0.9 per cent of all scheduled UK departures, as well as 25 arrivals into the UK.
![Passengers queue at London Gatwick Airport last Friday amid the global IT outage](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/07/22/08/87612079-13658229-image-a-22_1721634098964.jpg)
Passengers queue at London Gatwick Airport last Friday amid the global IT outage
![Commuters at London Euston railway station last Friday during the global IT outage](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/07/22/08/87612081-13658229-image-a-21_1721634061801.jpg)
Commuters at London Euston railway station last Friday during the global IT outage
On Saturday the Port of Dover said it was dealing with ‘hundreds of displaced’ airport passengers and urged customers to ensure they had a booking before arrival.
Transport Secretary Louise Haigh said on Saturday afternoon that the IT systems of UK airports and train operators were ‘back up and working as normal’, but ‘some delays and a small number of cancelled flights’ were expected.
Professor Ciaran Martin, the former chief executive of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), said on the same day that ‘the worst’ of the outage was over but countries would ‘have to learn to cope’ with future flaws.
The NCSC said affected organisations should ‘put in place vendor mitigations’, adding it was also warning about ‘an increase in related phishing’ as ‘opportunistic malicious actors seek to take advantage of the situation’.
Are you affected by flight disruption today? Please email: tips@dailymail.com