Charter & Fractional
CrowdStrike Outage Caused 10% Spike in Air Charter
Some travelers turned to private air charter after airline flights were canceled due to widespread computer glitch
Airports around the world fell victim to the so-called "blue screen of death" after a failed software update brought down many Windows-based systems.
Airports around the world fell victim to the so-called "blue screen of death" after a failed software update brought down many Windows-based systems. © Sarah Rose / AIN

Leading aircraft charter specialist Air Charter Service said the private aircraft charter market saw a more than 10% spike in business on Friday as people turned to alternative means of travel in the wake of the CrowdStrike-related IT outage that caused thousands of airline flight cancellations.

“Figures from flight data analysis specialist WingX show more than a 10% increase in private flights from Europe and the U.S. on Friday, compared to the same day last year, which is significantly ahead of the year-on-year figures for July so far,” said Air Charter Service director Joe Gallimore. “We had a real surge of activity on Friday, with bookings even still coming in on Sunday.