Airline stock market reaction to CrowdStrike IT outage: An event study analysis

This study investigates the short-term market effect of CrowdStrike IT outage in the airline industry. Using an event study methodology, we evidence that airline stocks respond significantly negatively to the technology disruption within two days before and after the event day. IT disruptions, by creating friction in daily operations, such as broken schedules, delayed or cancelled flights, negative externalities, and customer dissatisfaction, lead to loss of value for airlines. The results also show that the most affected airlines are those from main CrowdStrike customers countries (mainly non-Asian countries) and an irrelevance of the business model. Finally, the extent of the stock market's response to the CrowdStrike IT outage is influenced by other airline characteristics such as profitability, size, leverage, and cyber risk rating.