Some flights at Vancouver airport impacted by global technology outage

Dozens of flights at the Vancouver airport were cancelled or delayed Friday by the widespread technology outage that caused service disruptions around the world.

There were 17 flight cancellations at Vancouver International Airport between 5 a.m. and noon, accounting for approximately six per cent of those scheduled, according to officials.

The Vancouver Airport Authority said 72 per cent of departures and 80 per cent of arrivals were on time during the same period, and that the average delay for affected flights was under 50 minutes.

"YVR has additional staff onsite to support travellers impacted by flight cancellations or delays," the VAA said in a news release.

"We advise travellers to check flight information with their airline before coming to the airport, as airlines continue to adjust their schedules."

Some of the destinations on impacted departures included Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Los Angeles.

The outage has been blamed on a software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike that was deployed overnight to computers running Microsoft Windows. The company said the incident was not caused by a security breach.

YVR officials said the airport's systems were not directly affected by the outage, and that the majority of impacted airlines were U.S. carriers.

Porter Airlines cancelled all flights until 12 p.m. Friday, and told passengers they could not rebook until the systems were repaired.

Meanwhile, WestJet said there was "no direct impact" to that airline's systems or operations.

"Any flight cancellations across our network are unrelated to the CrowdStrike outage," the WestJet website said Friday morning.

The airline added that there could be delays caused by spillover effects of the outage, however.

The technology disruption has also knocked systems offline at some banks and hospitals. B.C.'s five regional health authorities posted messages on their websites Friday confirming impacts on “networks and computers across all systems.”

“We have implemented contingency plans to ensure that our health-care services remain operations, and that patient care is not disrupted to the best of our ability,” the messages read.

At an unrelated news conference Friday, officials with the Vancouver Police Department and E-Comm, B.C.’s Largest 911 service provider, said they have not experienced any issues related to the outage.

Public transit service across Metro Vancouver has not been impacted either, according to TransLink.

In a statement, the City of Vancouver said its systems had only been “minimally affected” as of Friday morning.