Airline services back to normal after global IT disruption
After a significant global IT outage on Friday, airline operations have returned to normalcy with all online services such as ticket bookings, reservations, and boarding passes now fully functional.
An airline executive said, “All operations have been restored. Our services, including bookings and reservations, are fully online since late Friday evening. The system is back up, and there are no service disruptions. Everything is returning to normal.”
A major IT outage had occurred due to an update from global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, affecting Microsoft’s Windows systems worldwide. This outage impacted various sectors, including airlines, financial companies, hospitals, and television channels. Airports across the country saw chaotic scenes as online passenger booking, reservation, and boarding systems reverted to manual mode, resulting in longer passenger processing times.
Minister Naidu said the ministry is continuously monitoring airport and airline operations to ensure that travel adjustments and refunds are handled efficiently. Air India reported that its robust IT infrastructure remained unaffected and continued to operate normally.
Most airlines, including IndiGo, SpiceJet, Akasa, and Air India Express, reported that their reservation and check-in systems were operational by Saturday morning. A passenger at Delhi Airport commented, “I am traveling to Ahmedabad. The online printing (Digi Yatra) is convenient, which wasn’t available yesterday. Everything is fine today. Flights are on time. What happened yesterday was a network issue that no one could control.”
IndiGo, the largest airline by domestic market share, operating over 2,000 daily flights, had to cancel around 200 flights due to the Microsoft outage. “Our teams have made significant progress in restoring normal operations after the outage is resolved. However, customers may still experience delays and schedule disruptions over the weekend,” the airline said.
SpiceJet and Akasa Air also confirmed that all their systems, including ticket bookings, were functioning smoothly following the resolution of the Microsoft outage. “All our systems at airports, ticket bookings, and call centers are operating smoothly,” SpiceJet stated.
