Global IT Outage Cripples Airlines and Airports

A massive global IT outage grounded flights and caused major delays at airports, affecting industries from banking to media. The issue appeared to stem from a Microsoft software glitch, affecting various Office 365 services. Major airports and airlines advised passengers to check their flight status and arrive early.

Air passengers around the world faced delays, cancellations and problems checking in as airports and airlines were caught up in a massive IT outage that also affected industries ranging from banks to media companies.

In Edinburgh, a Reuters witness said boarding pass scanners carried a 'server offline message,' with the airport advising passengers to check their flight status online before traveling. Elsewhere, airlines advised customers to arrive earlier than normal for flights. Analysts attributed the outage to a likely glitch in Microsoft software used globally.

Microsoft reported that users might be unable to access various Office 365 apps and services due to a 'configuration change in a portion of our Azure-backed workloads.' Hong Kong International Airport acknowledged that a Microsoft outage affected several airlines, leading to manual check-ins, although flight operations remained unaffected.

Singapore's Changi airport also reported manual check-ins. An alert from Crowdstrike, reviewed by Reuters, indicated that the company's 'Falcon Sensor' software caused Microsoft Windows to crash and display a blue screen, known as the 'Blue Screen of Death.' The alert shared a manual workaround to rectify the issue. A Crowdstrike spokesperson did not respond to requests for comments.

The aviation sector, highly sensitive to timings, was hit hard. Airlines across the U.S., Asia, and Europe, including major carriers like Ryanair, Delta, and Air India, experienced delays or disruptions. Several U.S. carriers, including American Airlines, United Airlines, and Delta Airlines, issued ground stops early Friday due to communication issues, according to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.

In Europe, Schiphol, Berlin, London Gatwick, Edinburgh, and other airports reported impacts from the outage. 'We expect longer waiting times and some flight cancellations. Not all airports in Europe were impacted as the issue is linked with a specific OS, Microsoft Azure,' said Agata Lyznik, a spokesperson for airports group ACI Europe.

Some airlines reported being back online. Spanish carrier Iberia managed to avoid flight cancellations, saying that from 9:25 a.m. onwards, electronic check-in counters and online check-ins were reactivated, although there were some delays.

(With inputs from agencies.)