In the wake of the global IT problem on Friday, 19 July that caused thousands of flight cancellations, Air Charter Service says the private aircraft charter market saw an increase of more than 10 per cent compared to the same date last year as people turned to alternative means of travel.
On what was predicted to be the busiest day for flights from UK airports since before the pandemic, a huge Microsoft outage saw computer systems around the world crashing, leading to the cancellation of thousands of commercial flights globally. Determined not to have their planned holidays delayed, meetings missed and connections not made, some people chose to look for immediate alternatives. 
Director Joe Gallimore says: “Figures from flight data analysis specialist WingX show a more than 10 per cent increase in private flights from Europe and the US on Friday compared to the same day last year, which is significantly ahead of the year on year figures for July so far.
“We had a real surge of activity on Friday, with bookings even still coming in on Sunday. Our US offices, in particular, were extremely busy, with our Atlanta, Los Angeles, Miami, New York and Washington offices all booking multiple flights for clients who either didn’t want to miss out on their holidays or had to be at an all-important meeting that day.
“One small group of passengers were just trying to get home from Georgia to Michigan, and we booked a charter for them within an hour of them calling in. Another client had missed their connecting flight to the Caribbean, while another had a flight on Sunday that they couldn’t afford to have cancelled and so chose to book with us to be on the safe side.”