Send this page to someone via email

U.S. Customs and Border Protection says its systems are coming back online after a widespread outage on Friday afternoon.

READ MORE: A look at what Canadian airlines are doing with their Boeing 737 MAX 8s fleets

The agency said in a statement at around 5:20 p.m. ET that travellers at some airports were experiencing longer than usual wait times for processing due to the outage.

“CBP officers are working to process travellers as quickly as possible while maintaining the highest levels of security,” a CBP official said.

Over an hour later, the agency said in a tweet that the issue was being resolved.

“There is no indication the disruption was malicious in nature at this time,” CBP said.

Story continues below advertisement

The affected systems are coming back online and travelers are being processed. CBP will continue to monitor the incident. There is no indication the disruption was malicious in nature at this time. — CBP (@CBP) August 16, 2019

Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, where U.S.-bound passengers clear customs in advance, had warned travellers to expect delays.

The airport said it had deployed extra staff in order to help passengers.

The nationwide @CBP IT issue is ongoing. We have deployed extra staff in the terminals to assist passengers and we thank you for your patience. US CBP Officers are working to process travellers as quickly as possible while maintaining the highest levels of security. — Toronto Pearson (@TorontoPearson) August 16, 2019

Travellers at U.S. airports shared pictures of long lines on social media.

Los Angeles International Airport said that CBP systems were experiencing an issue that “appears to be impacting multiple airports.”

The airport advised passengers to check their flight status.

Hello, yes customs systems are down right now nationwide but they are starting to use backup systems. People are being processed, but slower. Thanks for your patience. *NV — Kennedy Airport (@JFKairport) August 16, 2019

Nationwide outage of US CBP computer systems. Easily 5,000+ passengers in line at Dulles. pic.twitter.com/JGJD95sfFx — Rebekah Tromble (@RebekahKTromble) August 16, 2019

I was finally able to check in for a flight before actually getting to the airport 😂…. & now US Customs systems are down NATION WIDE! Line is crazy & getting crazier. pic.twitter.com/RctYJbEFrF — Ali Ahmad (@AliAhmad03) August 16, 2019

All Customs systems down at PHL. Landed 45 minutes ago. Still in line at Global Entry. #phl #uscustoms #BorderPatrol pic.twitter.com/HUJhdapdx2 — Joe Martella (@jmartella2) August 16, 2019