Microsoft outage hits Worldwide airport services

Microsoft outage hits Worldwide airport services
New Delhi: Airport and airline operations faced significant disruptions on Friday due to global Microsoft outage, with airlines issuing advisories to passengers. IndiGo, SpiceJet, Air India, Air India Express and Akasa saw disruptions in their online check-in and boarding processes across their networks, forcing them to switch to manual mode.

“Our systems are currently impacted by a Microsoft outage, which is also affecting other companies. During this time booking, check-in, access to your boarding pass, and some flights may be impacted,” IndiGo said in an update on X. “We are all hands-on decks and are working to restore stability and normalcy. Our digital team is also coordinating closely with Microsoft Azure to resolve these issues swiftly,” it stated.

Budget carrier Akasa said: “Due to infrastructure issues with our service provider, some of our online services, including booking, check-in and manage booking services will be temporarily unavailable. Currently we are following manual check-in and boarding processes at the airports.”

The airline requested its passengers with immediate travel plans to reach airport early to check in, as a precautionary measure. SpiceJet also said it is currently experiencing technical challenges with its service provider, affecting online services including booking, check-in, and managing booking functionalities.

“As a result, we have activated manual check-in and boarding processes across airports,” it stated. New Delhi airport said it too faced some IT issues and some services were temporarily affected. Due to the global IT issue, some of the services at the Delhi Airport were temporarily impacted.

“We are closely working with all our stakeholders to minimise the inconvenience to our flyers”, the New Delhi airport said on X.

The Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad, run by GMR group, put out an advisory saying that due to the global IT outage, the services of some airlines have been impacted.

Airport sources said that as many as 23 flights — 12 departures and 11 arrivals — including Indigo’s flights to Visakhapatnam, Tirupati, Ahmedabad and Bengaluru have been cancelled.

“We are closely working with all our stakeholders to minimise the inconvenience to our flyers. You may please get in touch with the airline concerned for updates on your flight information. We thank you for your support and understanding,” the airport said in a post on social media platform X.

Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the IT ministry is in touch with Microsoft regarding global outage and that NIC network is not affected.

In a post on X, the IT minister said the reason for this outage has been identified and updates have been released to resolve the issue. “MEITY is in touch with Microsoft and its associates regarding the global outage… NIC network is not affected,” the minister said.

Meanwhile, CERT-In in an advisory said the Microsoft outage was caused by Crowdstrike update, and rated its severity as “critical”. The advisory comes amid a massive outage faced by Microsoft users globally, and widespread reports of disruptions in international airlines, banks and media outlets.

“It has been reported that Windows hosts related to Crowdstrike agent ‘Falcon Sensor’ are facing outages and getting crashed due to recent update received in the product. The concerned windows hosts are experiencing a ‘Blue Screen of Death (BSOD)’ related to Falcon Sensor,” the CERT-In advisory said.

Meanwhile, several major oil and gas trading desks in London and Singapore were struggling to execute trades due to a cyber outage, industry sources said. LSEG Group’s Workspace news and data platform also suffered an outage, affecting user access worldwide.

Widespread outages affecting banks, telecom networks and media were reported in Australia, possibly linked to an issue at global cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike. Major US airlines also issued ground stops citing communications issues. Crowdstrike ran a recorded phone message on Friday saying it was aware of reports of crashes on Microsoft’s Windows operating system relating to its Falcon sensor.