Disruption caused by the global IT outage has continued this weekend as airline passengers reported long delays and lost baggage, while pharmacies tried to deal with a backlog in medicine deliveries.
The outage spread globally on Friday morning after an update from global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike knocked many Microsoft Windows PCs offline with a “blue screen of death” appearing on screens.
The company’s founder confirmed it was caused by a bug in the update and not a cyber attack, as some had feared.
Experts have warned it could take weeks for systems to fully recover and problems at airports were being reported on Saturday.
Andrew Evans, from Taunton in Somerset, said he had been waiting more than nine hours in Palma de Mallorca airport and claimed there had been little communication from airline operator TUI.
His flight, bound for Exeter, was due to take off at 2.05am local time (1.05am UK time) but passengers had still not boarded at around 10.30am local time on Saturday morning.
“Our holiday has absolutely fallen apart at the end – it feels like we are abandoned,” Mr Evans said.
“We went to the carousel but there was nothing there. We still haven’t got our luggage.”
Passengers at Palma de Mallorca airport were affected by the disruption. Pic: AP
Passengers on a Ryanair flight from Bristol to Portugal reported arriving at the holiday destination to find that no checked-in baggage had been loaded on to the plane.
On Friday, some 167 flights scheduled to depart from UK airports were cancelled, while 171 flights due to land in the UK were axed.
TUI said its IT systems “remained unstable” and apologised to passengers, adding: “We understand how disappointing this would have been and recognise that many customers were already at the airport waiting for their departure.”
The Port of Dover said early on Saturday that it was dealing with “hundreds of displaced” airport passengers and urged customers to ensure they had a booking before arrival.
Error messages on screens at Chicago O’Hare International Airport after software issues delayed and cancelled flights globally. Pic: AP
Blue screens showing error messages are displayed instead of flight information at Chicago O’Hare International Airport. Pic: AP
It is understood that the port was not a victim of the global IT outage.
Doug Bannister, head of the Port of Dover, said: “We operate a turn-up-and-go system here. However, we do insist you have a book on busy days, even if people are doing this on the drive down.
“The greater visibility we have the better.
“But we are here to service people who want to travel. So I would say to displaced airport passengers ‘come on down. We have the capacity’.”
The travel delays come as thousands of families start to embark on summer holidays amid the end of the academic year for many schools.
Read more:
Who will pay for worst IT outage the world has seen
Charts show when outages peaked across services
IT outage: The risks of complexity
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
How outage caused global chaos
Meanwhile, there was also significant disruption to pharmacy services on Saturday.
Nick Kaye, chair of the National Pharmacy Association, said: “Systems are by and large back online and medicine deliveries have resumed in many community pharmacies today after the global IT outage.
“However, yesterday’s outage will have caused backlogs and we expect services to continue to be disrupted this weekend as pharmacies recover.
“We urge people to be patient when visiting their local pharmacy and some may be still prioritising those patients with emergency prescriptions from their GP surgery.”
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Indie rock group Bombay Bicycle Club announced the rescheduled date of a music festival performance they missed due to the global IT outage.
The British group were due to play Poolbar Festival in the Austrian town of Feldkirch on Friday but missed it due to cancelled flight.
The show is now going to take place on Sunday, the band said.