Charlotte airport flights delayed, canceled due to worldwide tech issues

By the numbers: By 11pm Friday, 958 flights have been delayed at CLT and 198 have been canceled, per FlightAware data.

Catch up quick: CrowdStrike, a major cybersecurity company whose customers include some of the world's largest companies, said a faulty software update — not a malicious cyberattack or a nation-state attack — caused the widespread outages, Axios' Sam Sabin reports.

What they're saying: "Due to the ongoing global technology impacts, we are advising passengers to not come to the airport unless they have confirmed their flight information with the airline," CLT said in a statement.

• The outage "could continue to affect flights this weekend," per the Federal Aviation Administration.

Zoom in: American Airlines, which accounts for roughly 90% of daily CLT flights, is among the impacted carriers.

• The airline told Axios' Rebecca Falconer via email that they are "aware of a technical issue with CrowdStrike that is impacting multiple carriers" and are working with the cybersecurity firm in an effort to resolve the issue as quickly as possible, per American's statement.
• American has also issued a travel waiver for customers impacted by the outage. This allows customers to rebook without fees, cancel their flight or receive a refund. Find full details here.

Zoom out: The impact of the outage also disrupted other areas, including the city of Charlotte's website and the Charlotte Area Transit System's website. Both were up and running by mid-afternoon.

• People were also unable to pay their Charlotte Water bill's online until mid-afternoon, but Charlotte Water said it would not disconnect anyone's water as a result.

• A Novant Health spokesperson told Axios, "select facilities" in its coastal region were impacted. "All of our facilities remain operational and open to care for our patients and communities," per the spokesperson.
• Some of Atrium Health's "clinical applications" were impacted, per an Atrium Health spokesperson.
• "We are informed that the issue stems from a vendor software bug and is not related to any cybersecurity incident," Jordan Monaghan, a spokesperson for N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper's office, told Axios.
• "The vendor is providing its customers steps to correct the issue and NCDIT is going through those steps as they are provided," Monaghan said. "NCDIT is working closely with state agencies as we all navigate this issue."

The big picture: Cities across the country are feeling the outage's impact.

Editor's note: This is a developing story. We will update you as we learn more.