Global IT outage hits airlines, emergency services worldwide

A significant disruption in Microsoft's cloud services has led to widespread flight delays and impacted critical services worldwide on Friday. In India, Delhi and Mumbai airports bore the maximum brunt, affecting booking and check-in services for airlines including IndiGo, Akasa Airlines, and SpiceJet.

Airlines resorted to manual check-in and boarding processes, urging passengers to arrive early. SpiceJet reported a technical issue preventing updates on flights. "Our team is actively working to resolve this issue," the airline stated on X (formerly Twitter).

Akasa Airlines announced temporary unavailability of some online services at Mumbai and Delhi airports. "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," the airline said.

The IT outage, suspected to be caused by a failure in CrowdStrike's cybersecurity platform, affected systems across the globe, including in Australia, Germany, the United States, the UK, and other countries. The disruption extended beyond airlines, impacting health systems and emergency services.

In Australia, banks, telecoms, media outlets, and airlines faced a large-scale technical outage. Emergency 911 services in many parts of the United States were also down, and non-emergency call centers were non-functional. Britain's Sky News experienced broadcasting interruptions, with their executive chairman David Rhodes apologizing to viewers on social media.

Health services in England faced challenges as a health booking system went offline. Berlin airport halted all flights until 1:30 pm IST due to a technical fault, delaying check-ins. The London Stock Exchange and major US airlines like American Airlines, Delta, and United reported significant disruptions. Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport, one of Europe's busiest hubs, also faced impacts.