Airport systems working normally, says Aviation Ministry, day after Windows outage hit flights | Business News
After the Microsoft outage severely impacted flight operations across the country, airline systems across airports in India resumed operations normally from 3 am Saturday, the civil aviation ministry said.
The official statement, posted by Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu on X, also travel adjustments and refund processes are being taken care of.
“Since 3 am, Airline systems across airports have started working normally. Flight operations are going smoothly now. There is a backlog because of disruptions yesterday, and it is getting cleared gradually. By noon today, we expect all issues to be resolved,” the statement read.
The impact of the outage of Microsoft 365 and Azure services was most pronounced in the aviation sector. Hundreds of flights including those by Indigo, Air India, SpiceJet and Akasa Air were delayed and several cancelled as airline operators found their systems inoperative and had to switch to manual processes.
At the Delhi Airport for instance, more than 400 flights faced delays and over 50 were cancelled, as per data compiled by flightradar24.
Why were airports and airlines impacted by the CrowdStrike outage?
The global technical downtime seemed to partly emanate from a faulty software update issued by major US cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. Major corporations across the world use software developed by CrowdStrike, which is why all their systems faced the outage at the same time.
Cloud-based services keep flights on time and our airports running smoothly. So when these services went down, it was as if someone pulled the plug on their operations.
What different airlines said on the disruptions?
Indigo
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India’s largest airliner Indigo said that its systems “across the network” were impacted by the issue with Microsoft Azure, “which has resulted in increased wait times at our contact centres and airports”. In a statement on Friday, it said: “You may experience slower check-ins and longer queues… Our digital team is also coordinating closely with Microsoft Azure to resolve these issues swiftly.”
Akasa Air
In a post on social media platform X, the airliner said that its online services like booking, check-in and manage booking services will be temporarily unavailable.
Air India Express
“Digital infrastructure issues have temporarily impacted online and airport operations across multiple airlines and airports globally. Please plan your travel and keep sufficient time in hand for airport procedures. We regret the inconvenience and appreciate your patience and understanding during this time,” it said on X.
Spicejet
“We’re currently facing a technical issue in providing updates on flight disruptions. Our team is actively working to resolve this issue. We regret any inconvenience caused and will update you once the issue is resolved. Thank you for your patience and cooperation,” Spicejet said.
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