UPS, FedEx Say Deliveries May Be Delayed by Microsoft Outage

Both UPS and FedEx told their customers Friday (July 19) that package deliveries may be delayed due to the global Microsoft outage that began late Thursday (July 18).

“A third-party software outage is impacting some UPS computer systems,” UPS said in a service alert on its website. “While the UPS network is operating and delivering in all areas, there is a potential for delivery delays. Contingency plans are in place to help ensure that shipments arrive at their final destinations as quickly as possible.”

Similarly, FedEx delivered a message on its active service disruptions page cautioning customers about potential delays.

“FedEx has activated contingency plans to mitigate impacts from a global IT outage experienced by a third-party software vendor,” the company said. “However, potential delays are possible for package deliveries with a commitment of July 19, 2024. FedEx is committed to providing the best service possible.”

As PYMNTS reported earlier Friday, an outage that snarled systems from airports to stock exchanges started when it struck users of Microsoft’s Windows operating system late Thursday and early Friday and was caused by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike’s software update.

“This is not a security incident or cyberattack,” CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said in a Friday post on X.

The outage grounded flights, disrupted banks and financial services, and knocked doctors’ booking services offline.

In another post added later on Friday, Kurtz reiterated that the incident was not a security or cyber incident, that CrowdStrike’s customers remain fully protected, and that a fix for the issue has been deployed.

“We understand the gravity of the situation and are deeply sorry for the inconvenience and disruption,” Kurtz said in the post. “We are working with all impacted customers to ensure that systems are back up and they can deliver the services their customers are counting on.”

CNN reported Friday that the outage has caused U.S. flight issues, with more than 2,000 flights canceled and more than 5,300 delayed.

The report added that these and other businesses may be dealing with this issue for some time, because there’s a challenging process involved in getting the systems back up and running.