Ontario International Airport sees minimal effects from technology outage

The technology outage seen across the globe Friday, July 19, delayed some flights and sparked anxiety among travelers at Ontario International Airport, but overall things were business as usual.

The Ontario airport saw 13 of its approximately 70 flights delayed overnight, spokesperson Steve Lambert said Friday morning.

RELATED: LAX, John Wayne and Long Beach flights temporarily grounded; ports disrupted

At other airports, American, United, Delta and Southwest airlines have been impacted, he said.

But Ontario has not been as hit as hard because Southwest is its primary carrier and that airline has not experienced as many delays, Lambert said.

Still, the outage caused plenty of nervousness and confusion among Ontario airport patrons.

“There’s a lot more questions than answers at this point and it’s a bit frustrating,” said 35-year-old Corona resident Jordan Sullivan, who had Southwest Airlines tickets. “I’m supposed to fly to Vegas tonight to make a bachelorette party and I hope I can make it on time because right now my flight says delayed.”

Abilaji Chima, a 51-year-old Ontario resident, couldn’t stay up to date on his flight.

“I’m just very confused, because my flight status on my app keeps changing, Chima said Friday afternoon. “I’m supposed to fly out of United here shortly but it’s like I’m forced now to wait in the airport for longer because no one really has a clear answer.”

Angela Hernandez, a 21-year-old from Murrieta who had American Airlines tickets, had her fingers crossed.

“Oh my gosh, the news was all over my Twitter this morning …” Hernandez said. “For right now my flight says it’s on time, I’m hoping that doesn’t change because I really need to make this conference I have in Phoenix tomorrow.”

A planned trip to Portland made for nervous times for a Temecula family.

“It was a mess this morning for my family,” said Jatchi Abdul, a 46-year-old Temecula resident. “I was worried our flight would get canceled after hearing about what happened but we’re here now and it’s supposed to run as scheduled out of Frontier.”

The problem, Lambert said, is not with airports themselves, but with airlines.

“We are urging everyone to contact their airlines to check the status of their upcoming flights to make sure they are on time,” Lambert said.

At Ontario, it is hard to tell if more flights will be delayed, Lambert said.

The status of current flights at Ontario International Airport can be found here.

Elsewhere in Southern California, departing flights from Los Angeles International Airport, Hollywood Burbank Airport, Long Beach Airport and John Wayne Airport were temporarily grounded Friday, according to a FAA alert.

By 2 p.m., LAX spokeswoman Dae Levine said all airlines were back online and “slowly recovering,” with some airlines still seeing flight delays of up to two to three hours.

Santa Clarita residents Jacen Torres and Alfonso Dominguez arrived at LAX about 9 a.m. and made their way to the back of the long line for United Airlines customers whose flights had been canceled or rescheduled for Saturday, July 20. They were trying to get to Montana to reunite with other friends for a vacation.

“It’s terrible,” Torres said. “We’re going to have to come back tomorrow. …

“I can’t imagine if someone if flying for a wedding, funeral or work. I just wish they could accommodate (passengers) better.”

Shipments at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach were disrupted and delayed. KNX reported that hundreds of trucks waited for hours for cargo to be released and loaded.

But Rachel Campbell, a Port of Los Angeles spokeswoman, said only one container terminal at that port was affected. It became fully operational and all trucks in the queue were processed into the terminal, she said.

The global outage was caused by a faulty software update and had many repercussions.

It grounded flights, knocked banks and media outlets offline, and disrupted hospitals, small businesses and other services, highlighting the fragility of a digitized world dependent on just a handful of providers.

The trouble with the update issued by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike and affecting computers running Microsoft Windows was not a hacking incident or cyberattack, according to CrowdStrike, which apologized and said a fix was on the way.

But hours later, the disruptions continued — and escalated.

Long lines formed at airports in the U.S., Europe and Asia as airlines lost access to check-in and booking services at a time when many travelers are heading away on summer vacations. Hospitals and doctors’ offices had problems with their appointment systems, and cancelled non-urgent surgeries. Several TV stations in the U.S. were also prevented from airing local news early Friday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.