Delta, United Websites Impact Passenger Check-Ins and Trip Management

It seems that Amazon is yet another silent but deadly aviation asset, with effects of an Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage rippling through airline websites. Travelers, especially those flying with Delta and United, faced diffuculties checking in for flights, viewing and managing their trips, retrieving boarding passes, and dropping off bags.

Amazon confirmed increased error rates and slow response times affecting multiple services before reporting “significant signs of recovery” by midmorning. While most functions were restored by midday, the backlog from the outage created ripple effects across several industries, including finance, social media, and gaming. For airlines, however, the consequences were immediate and visible.

United and Delta both reported temporary website and app outages tied to the AWS failure, forcing check-in kiosks and manual systems back into use. Passengers were unable to view seat assignments, manage bookings, or generate mobile boarding passes. United referred to the disruption as a “temporary system glitch,” with Delta noting that contingency procedures prevented widespread flight cancellations. Southwest Airlines also experienced a brief system interruption before services stabilized.

Amazon later traced the problem to internal EC2 and load-balancer issues within its East Coast data center network. Though the company said there was no evidence of a cyberattack, the incident sparked concerns about the aviation industry’s dependence on shared cloud infrastructure.

Despite the inconvenience, the AWS outage was relatively mild compared to past airline IT breakdowns. Unlike the FAA’s 2023 NOTAM failure or Delta’s 2016 data-center power loss, both of which grounded flights for days, this event mainly affected passenger-facing systems rather than flight operations. That makes it more resemblant of the July 2024 Crowdstrike outage, though that incident triggered more large-scale flight cancellations. All four of these, however, show just how much of a curse the blessing we call technology can be.

FMI: https://aws.amazon.com