American Airlines Is Ready for the Next CrowdStrike-Scale Outage

At about 12:30 a.m. on July 19, Jessica Tyler was awakened by a phone call from work. That in itself is not unusual. Tyler is in charge of American Airlines Group Inc.’s Integrated Operations Center, located just outside Dallas Fort Worth International Airport. The IOC is American’s nerve center, managing the carrier’s more than 6,000 daily flights.

The range of problems the IOC has to deal with is dizzying: winter storms and summer hurricanes, mechanical failures and the occasional volcanic ash cloud. Every decision the people there make must take into account a lengthy list of factors, including the ...