DETROIT — A widespread outage affecting Microsoft users worldwide is having an effect on travelers at Detroit Metro Airport and Eugene F. Kranz Toledo Express Airport, with backups and delays seen for multiple airline carriers.
Nationwide, businesses including airlines and banks reported problems starting Thursday night and escalating Friday morning. Microsoft said it was gradually fixing an issue that affected access to Microsoft 365 apps and services.
As of 4:30 a.m., Delta, American Airlines, United Airlines and other airlines across the globe, said they had grounded all flights until the tech issue could be resolved. The FAA confirmed Allegiant flights had also been grounded.
Detroit Metro Airport delays
Detroit Metro Airport's X account announced around 5 a.m. that anyone flying on Friday should check their flight status before heading to the airport and its 8 a.m. update advised the same, even as operations started to return to normal.
WTOL 11 traffic specialist Steven Jackson made his way to the airport early Friday morning to get a sense of the delays travelers could be experiencing.
Several hundred travelers crowded the Delta terminal as they attempted to check in for flights, only to be met with computer systems that were down at a majority of the self-service kiosks around 5 a.m.
"Folks are able to go to some of the kiosks but right now only two kiosks are working so that they can get their boarding passes. All flights are grounded, but once they get those boarding passes, they're able to get through TSA. I did walk over to TSA this morning and TSA is functioning as long as folks have those boarding passes," Jackson said.
Once travelers were able to obtain their passes, they were permitted to go through TSA screening and go their their gates to await further word on when their flight delays would be lifted.
Just before 8 a.m., Delta announced it would be issuing a travel waiver for all customers who had booked flights that were to depart Friday.
WTOL 11 reporter Silver Barker spoke with multiple travelers at DTW who said they were frustrated and confused as their Delta flight was either delayed or canceled.
"We had one flight attendant or someone come up to us and ask, she checked our status and said it was canceled and all we can do is just wait in line,” Nina Oynoian, a traveler, said.
Pat Hughes, a woman from Oak Harbor, spoke with Barker earlier through a phone call and said she is stuck in Scotland after their flight to come back to Ohio was canceled.
"Overwhelming feeling of uneasiness because you don’t have a solid path anymore, they took that away from us," said Hughes. "I can’t go to the airport, I can’t board my flight, you know it’s all been taken away and what do you do? If your flight's canceled, they want you to call your carrier, but they don’t want you coming to the airport if you don’t have a flight.”
Toledo Express Airport delays
In Toledo, with Allegiant added to the growing list of major airlines experiencing issues Friday morning, Toledo Express joined the ranks of airports affected by the tech issues.
A pair of flights were scheduled at Toledo Express Friday morning, with one scheduled to arrive at 8:30 a.m. and another one to depart at 9:30.
As of 1 p.m. Friday, the airport directed travelers to check with Allegiant for the latest flight information. According to Flight Tracker, the only two outbound planes from Toledo scheduled for departure around that time were a private plane and a small plane owned by Kent State University. An inbound flight from El Paso was scheduled to land at Toledo Express around 3 p.m.
WTOL 11’s Mario Dunham traveled to the airport Friday morning to track the progress and see how travelers were coping with the news that their flights would be delayed.
He found the handful of travelers at the airport were waiting for representatives from Allegiant to arrive so they could answer their questions. Those travelers arrived early just as airport workers and other personnel were arriving. Early Friday, there were no people staffing the TSA kiosks or at the desk in order to answer questions. Travelers at the time were advised to check with Allegiant for latest flight information and instructions.
In a spot of good news, Mario reported that as of 8:25 a.m. an Allegiant flight took off from Orlando heading to Toledo. Ticketing agents were waiting for systems to come back online, though, in order to obtain a manifest to get people on the flight to Orlando from Toledo.
This is a developing story. Stay with WTOL for updates.