Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi: Airline systems across Indian airports have resumed normal operations since 3 AM on Saturday, following a massive worldwide Microsoft outage that disrupted services, announced Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu. “Since 3 AM, airline systems across airports have started working normally. Flight operations are going smoothly now,” Naidu stated in a press release.
The aviation ministry continues to monitor operations at airports to ensure travel adjustments and refunds are managed efficiently, the minister added. Meanwhile, Air India confirmed that none of its flights were canceled on Saturday due to the outage, although some delays were experienced. “Air India’s resilient IT infrastructure remained unaffected and continues to function as normal,” said an Air India spokesperson.
Despite Microsoft’s announcement on Friday that services had been restored, several Indian airports continued to experience technical glitches on Saturday. Passengers faced significant disruptions at major airports, including Mumbai, New Delhi, and Chennai. Long queues at check-in counters and slow check-ins were reported, with the DigiYatra system, which enables contactless air travel, remaining offline.
The technical problems began on July 19 due to a large outage caused by a glitch in CrowdStrike’s Falcon Sensor threat-monitoring software, which led to crashes in Microsoft’s Windows operating system. CrowdStrike has since rolled out fixes to address the issue.
Unnamed sources at Delhi airport reported that IndiGo still had long lines at its counters on Saturday due to ongoing system disruptions. A passenger at Indira Gandhi International Airport told ANI that most flights were delayed. “I am travelling to London, and my flight is delayed by at least half an hour. There is a long queue outside the airport,” they said.
Passengers at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport also faced significant issues. One passenger, travelling from Mumbai to Bengaluru, reported that their flight was canceled, leading to an overnight wait without proper accommodation.
IndiGo, SpiceJet, Air India, and Vistara faced substantial disruptions on Friday, with IndiGo canceling about 200 flights across India due to the global system outage. Despite Microsoft’s restoration efforts, IndiGo continued to operate manually, issuing boarding passes and conducting the boarding process without electronic systems, causing further delays.
Flights at Chennai Airport were also disrupted for the second consecutive day. A passenger named Prabakaran, scheduled to fly to the Maldives, faced uncertainty due to flight cancellations and expressed concerns about his job security.
Another passenger, a medical doctor from Sri Lanka, was unable to find a flight to Bhubaneswar and had to return to Sri Lanka, further highlighting the ongoing chaos caused by the outage.
The widespread outage impacted numerous sectors globally, including airlines, banks, food chains, brokerage firms, news organizations, and railway networks, with the travel industry being particularly hard hit.
