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Global IT Outage Grounds 1,000s of Planes; Makes ‘Flight Handling Impossible’

Gordon Smith and Peden Doma Bhutia, Skift
·5 min read

Airlines around the world are grounding flights as a global IT outage impacts operations. Companies in the United States, UK, India, and Australia are among those badly affected.

Delta Air Lines has “paused” all flights in its global network as it “works through a vendor technology issue.” United Airlines also confirmed it is halting all new departures, with the problems “impacting [its] ability to access reservation tools” for rebooking passengers.

The root cause of the problem is still unclear, however Microsoft says it is taking “mitigation actions” after service issues, according to the AFP news agency. Heathrow Airport was among the big name organizations to reference Microsoft in its statement on the issue.

As of 5am ET (9am GMT), aviation analytics firm Cirium said 1,078 flights had been canceled globally on Friday, with thousands more delayed. This number is expected to rise throughout the day. It is not immediately clear how many of the cancelations are directly related to the IT problem.

Dutch national carrier KLM said on X that the cyber challenges had made “flight handling impossible.” It added that it has “largely suspended operations” until further notice.

What Has Microsoft Said?

Microsoft said the outage started around 6pm ET (10pm GMT) on Thursday. The company says it is investigating issues with cloud services and an issue impacting some of its services and mobile apps.

Multiple reports have also suggested a possible issue relating to software from cyber-security firm CrowdStrike. The company has yet to comment publicly on the situation.

Plane tracking service Flightradar24 reported severe delays affecting arrivals and departures at major airports around the world.

Edinburgh Airport in Scotland is among those asking passengers due to travel today not to come to the terminal without checking with their airline first.

Meanwhile Ryanair is advising all passengers to arrive at the airport at least three hours before departure as it “experiences disruption across its network.”

Airlines and airports are no stranger to IT problems. Online travel businesses are also vulnerable to shutdowns, with the Expedia Group’s global outage in May a recent high profile example. However, the depth and scale of the current difficulties impacting the aviation sector is without recent precedent.

Indian Flights Hit Hard by IT Outage

All airlines in India have reported outages including Air India, Vistara, Indigo, Akasa Air, Air India Express and SpiceJet.

Carriers such as IndiGo, SpiceJet and Akasa had reported technical glitches impacting services like booking tickets and web check-in since 10:45am local time on Friday.

Earlier reports stated that airlines in the Air India Group had so far not been affected, but now all three airlines, including Air India, Vistara and Air India Express have reported glitches.

The Air India Group has asked guests to plan their travel accordingly and keep sufficient time in hand for airport procedures.

Akasa Air said that its online services like booking, check-in and manage booking services will be temporarily unavailable. It said it is currently following manual check-in and boarding processes at the airports and has requested passengers with immediate travel plans to reach the airport early to check-in at our counters.

SpiceJet said it is currently facing a technical issue in providing updates on flight disruptions.

“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 wrote on X.

Adani Airports, which operates airports in the Indian cities of Mumbai, Mangaluru, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Jaipur, Guwahati Thiruvananthapuram, issued a statement saying: “A global IT outage has affected operations, impacting flights nationwide. During this time, booking, check-in, access to boarding passes, and flights are likely to be affected…”

The Picture Across Asia-Pacific

Singapore’s Changi Airport also said that the check-in process for some airlines is being managed manually. The airport said its ground staff is providing assistance to passengers, “especially those with an impending departure.”

Hong Kong carrier Cathay Pacific announced that self-service check-in facilities at Hong Kong International Airport are currently unavailable. “We ask all customers to check in online via our website or mobile app and obtain their mobile boarding pass before coming to the airport. For customers with checked baggage, we strongly recommend arriving at the airport at least three hours prior to departure to allow sufficient time to complete check-in formalities.”

Sydney Airport said departures and arrivals were continuing, however major delays should be expected, adding: “We have activated our contingency plans and deployed additional staff to our terminals.”

The aviation industry is not alone in facing technical problems. There are reports of outages and other IT failures at banks, hospitals, and other organizations around the world.

This is a breaking story which will be updated.

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