Thousands of flights were stopped or delayed at the world’s largest air freight hubs in Europe, Asia and North America as a result of an system update by the IT security company CrowdStrike.
“Aircraft and cargo are not where they should be, and it will take days or even weeks to fully resolve the issues,” Niall van de Wouw, chief air freight officer at supply chain consultancy Xeneta, said in a statement obtained by CNBC. “This reminds us how vulnerable our maritime and air supply chains are to IT outages.”
The new problem for the global supply chain comes amid a surge in global demand, with shipments up 13% year-on-year in June. Air freight supply is up, but only by 3% year-on-year, which Xeneta says is already leading to higher costs for shippers due to limited capacity. “Shippers already had concerns about air freight capacity due to the huge increase in demand in 2024, driven mainly by the extraordinary growth of e-commerce goods exported from China to Europe and the US,” said van de Wouw. “The available capacity in the market is already limited, so airlines will struggle to carry cargo tomorrow that should have been carried today.
FedEx said in a statement that it had activated contingency plans, but added that “potential delays in package deliveries” expected on Friday were possible.
UPS said in a statement that its computer systems in the U.S. and Europe were affected, but the carrier continues to operate effectively and drivers are on the road making deliveries to customers. “We continue to work to resolve all issues as quickly as possible; there may be some service delays,” UPS said.
