A significant IT infrastructure outage is ongoing, causing banks, airports, airlines, and even personal laptops not to work and, in many cases, crash. The impact, of course, is showing in aviation globally and in India.
Cloudstrike Outage affects airlines and airports.
A significant disruption caused by a bad update pushed out by Cloudstrike, an enterprise cybersecurity firm, is causing widespread flight cancellations and delays globally, including in India.
Delhi Airport seems to have a blackout on the screens and check-in systems. However, when I boarded a flight from one of these gates this morning, everything was working.
Due to major global system outage, all gate screens at DEL blank. Flights are being held at gate. Some gates boarding pax and holding on board, some flights holding pax at gate itself, which is better. Seems to be impacting many airports and airlines. pic.twitter.com/9SmHsZ6wYg
— Sanjiv Kapoor (@TheSanjivKapoor) July 19, 2024
All systems are down at the Delhi airport Teminal 3. For the past hour, everything is back to the days of physical boarding pass, security checks and rubber stamping on boarding passes. Most screens are out as well. Staff are doing a great job of adapting to this ‘old’ reality! pic.twitter.com/r7vAl2rAvT
— Karthik Nagarajan (@The_Karthik) July 19, 2024
Similarly, IT Systems at Mumbai Airport are reportedly down as well.
Akasa has issued an advisory.
#TravelUpdate: 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 and hence…
— Akasa Air (@AkasaAir) July 19, 2024
Akasa’s statement says,
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 and hence request passengers with immediate travel plans to reach the airport early to check-in at our counters. We sincerely regret the inconvenience caused and want to assure you that our teams are working with our service provider to resolve the same at the earliest.
Similarly, SpiceJet and IndiGo are also affected.
#ImportantUpdate: We are currently experiencing technical challenges with our service provider, affecting online services including booking, check-in, and manage booking functionalities. As a result, we have activated manual check-in and boarding processes across airports. We…
— SpiceJet (@flyspicejet) July 19, 2024
Here is the statement issued by SpiceJet
We are currently experiencing technical challenges with our service provider, affecting online services including booking, check-in, and manage booking functionalities. As a result, we have activated manual check-in and boarding processes across airports. We kindly request passengers with upcoming travel plans to arrive at the airport earlier than usual to complete check-in at our counters. We sincerely regret for any inconvenience this may cause and assure you that our teams are diligently working with our service provider to resolve these issues promptly. Thank you for your patience and co-operation during this time.
IndiGo’s statement reads,
Our systems across the network are impacted by an ongoing issue with Microsoft Azure, which has resulted in increased wait times at our contact centres and airports. You may experience slower check-ins and longer queues. We are all hands-on deck and are working relentlessly to restore stability and normalcy. Our digital team is also coordinating closely with Microsoft Azure to resolve these issues swiftly.
We appreciate your patience and understanding during this time.
Vistara is also facing issues, perhaps due to airport IT issues.
Air India Express put out a new advisory as well.
Global digital infrastructure issues with cloud services are temporarily impacting operations across multiple airlines, airports and other businesses globally. As a result, our website, reservation and airport check-in systems are also impacted. Please plan your travel and keep…
— Air India Express (@AirIndiaX) July 19, 2024
And then, there is Air India’s advisory, which arrived last.
Customer Advisory
Our digital systems have been impacted temporarily due to the current Microsoft outage resulting in delays. We regret the inconvenience caused and request our guests to plan their travel accordingly.#AirIndia
— Air India (@airindia) July 19, 2024
The issue first affected US carriers Frontier Airlines, Allegiant Air and Sun Country Airlines. Reportedly, American Airlines and Delta have contacted the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) and requested a ground stop for their operations until this issue is resolved.
The issue has made it to Christchurch in New Zealand by now.
The global IT outage has affected Christchurch Airport. A number of the company’s systems may affect flight arrivals and departures. The airport is urging passengers to airlines before travelling to the airport. Photo supplied. pic.twitter.com/NtcVUVaQ2w
— Chris Lynch (@chrislynchmedia) July 19, 2024
There are also issues at Changi Airport in Singapore, which has caused them to switch to manual processing.
#ADVISORY: Due to a global outage affecting IT systems of many organisations, the check-in process for some airlines at Changi Airport is being managed manually.
Changi Airport ground staff are providing assistance to passengers, especially those with an impending departure.
— Changi Airport (@ChangiAirport) July 19, 2024
If you are scheduled to travel today, pack a lot of patience along. Most customer-facing processes are expected to run manually at various airports.
The Microsoft / CrowdStrike outage has taken down most airports in India. I got my first hand-written boarding pass today 😅 pic.twitter.com/xsdnq1Pgjr
— Akshay Kothari (@akothari) July 19, 2024
Bottomline
Globally, airlines and airports are witnessing an outage in their IT infrastructure. This is causing delays in flight departures across the globe. As it is an IT issue, it might take a while before it is fixed. Keep an eye on your flight schedules.
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Ajay a noob question.
Do we have any other Alternative to Microsoft cloud service for airlines?
If yes are those airline use other servers affected as well?
@Aakash, various airlines run different platforms, but in terms of operating systems, most people around the globe run Windows. That was where the problem was, with a programme that affected Windows and rolled out an update to computers worldwide because it was deemed mission critical.
Got it