Delta and United Airlines Flights Impacted by AWS Outage

On Monday, October 20, 2025, at around 3:00 AM Eastern Time, a widespread Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage caused disruptions, affecting numerous online services and applications, including the digital systems of several airlines.

Major carriers, including United Airlines and Delta Air Lines, experienced operational issues, with travelers reporting that they could not access bookings, complete online check-ins, or view seat assignments.

United disclosed that the outage delayed around 47 flights—about 1 percent of its schedule.

AWS attributed the problem to failures in its DynamoDB database, which led to unusually high latency and error rates across dependent systems.

AWS reported that services began to recover by 5:30 AM ET.

About a month ago, several major European airports were hit by a cyberattack that disrupted automatic check-in and boarding systems. That day, thousands of passengers experienced flight delays, cancellations, and long queues as staff had to switch to manual check-in procedures.

Photo by Christian Lambert on Unsplash