‘Travel insurance market is buoyant’ following Crowdstrike incident – Blink Parametric

The “travel insurance market is quite buoyant at the moment” following the ramifications of an IT outage related to American cyber security firm Crowdstrike, which saw planes grounded and flights delayed, according to Sid Mouncey, chief executive at insurtech Blink Parametric.

In July 2024, Crowdstrike experienced a faulty software update that affected around 8.5 million Windows hosts and led to global incurred losses of around $1.5bn (£1.12bn).

Detailing the fallout from this incident, an October 2024 article from aviation analysis firm Cirium explained that ”out of 411,009 globally scheduled passenger flights over a 72-hour period, approximately 16,896 flights were cancelled, representing just over 4% of global flights”.

Impacted airlines included American Airlines, British Airways, Delta Air Lines, Lufthansa and United Airlines, Cirium added.

This activity could have instigated greater interest in travel insurance policies as affected flyers were forced to make claims.

Mouncey told Insurance Times: “Around 30,000 flights are delayed globally every day and that number more than doubled on 19 July 2024, when Crowdstrike’s security upgrade triggered a global IT meltdown.

“Blink Parametric’s claims processing jumped 224% on that day alone.”

Real-time support

The insurtech offers parametric insurance products, which deliver a pre-determined claims payout amount when a preset trigger is reached. Its travel-related policies, for example, cover delayed flights and lost luggage. 

Mouncey believes incidents such as the Crowdstrike IT outage serve as “a reminder to insurers to look at real-time parametric solutions as they combine delivering genuine customer support at the time of need with operational and cost benefits every day”.

He continued: “As global events continue to shape the travel landscape, we have a busy pipeline of insurance and brand partners that are ramping up their claims responsiveness and customer care efforts to deliver effective support in real-time.”