CrowdStrike Defeats Air Traveler Class Action Over Mass Outage

CrowdStrike Inc. prevailed over a class action brought in US federal court by travelers whose flights got delayed or canceled amid a faulty software update that disrupted travel at airports nationwide last year.

The US District Court for the Western District of Texas granted the cybersecurity company’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit on Wednesday.

It denies the travelers damages to compensate for the expenses incurred booking new flights, hailing ride-shares, booking hotel rooms, buying extra toiletries or medication, and missing work due to lengthy flight delays or cancellations during the widespread computer outages in July. Those claims are preempted by the federal Airline Deregulation Act, as they would be if the travelers had sued the airlines directly, Judge Robert Pitman said in an 11-page order.

“The Court concludes that the airlines would experience significant effects from the enforcement of state tort law in this manner on CrowdStrike, akin to federal regulation, because cybersecurity vendors would have an incentive to change their practices and services for airlines specifically,” he said.

“The vendors would, if their potential liability in case of errors in the context of airlines extended to disruptions of airline services, also likely have a strong incentive to charge more for their services to offset that risk of liability,” he said.

Up to 46,000 flights were delayed and over 5,100 flights were canceled on the first day of the outage, the Aug. 5 complaint said.

CrowdStrike in April also sought to dismiss separate investor litigation alleging the company told them its platform had been sufficiently validated, despite not having sufficient procedures in place to test and update the system.

Barnow & Associates PC and Lockridge Grindal Nauen PLLP lead the travelers’ legal team. Crowdstrike is represented by DLA Piper LLP (US).

The case is Del Rio v. CrowdStrike Inc., W.D. Tex., No. 24-00881, order 6/18/25.