Global IT Outages: Travel grapples with tech ‘disaster’ as flights grounded
Massive IT outage worldwide disrupts airports, businesses and broadcasts
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As of 9:53pm (MNL/SIN), online flight tracker FlightAware stated that over 21,000 flights have been grounded globally. Meanwhile, aviation analytics firm Cirium puts the total number of global flight cancellations at around 1,396, with 52 departures from British airports among them. Likewise, 51 inbound flights to the UK have also been cancelled.
Source: FlightAware / Cirium
Who’s been hit hardest so far?
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Source: FlightAware
Thousands grounded as airports go manual
The ongoing outage has already impacted thousands of passengers throughout Asia. As reported, systems running self-check-in kiosks in India, Japan, Singapore, and Taiwan have crashed, forcing airport and immigration personnel to resort to manual procedures.
In the Philippines, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAAP)announced in a statement released earlier this evening that it began initiating irregular operations protocols in close coordination with affected airlines, the Aviation Security Group of the Philippine National Police (PNP), and the Office for Transportation Security.
A CAAP spokesperson said: “Additionally, personnel are adding more seating for passengers, personnel at the help desks, and medical teams are on standby in the departure areas [of affected airports.]”
As of 7:00pm Manila time, congestion caused by crowds of passengers flocking to check-in counters was already seen at Terminal 3 of Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) and at Davao International Airport. Interestingly, hardly any issues were reported at NAIA 1 which mostly caters to foreign airlines and NAIA 2 which is the home port for national flag carrier Philippine Airlines.
Low-cost carriers Cebu Pacific and AirAsia were the hardest hit by the outage, with the former cancelling the remaining 18 flights scheduled for 19 July and two international flights slated for 20 July. The flight cancellations were posted to Cebu Pacific’s official Facebook account early this evening.
In a statement posted to AirAsia Philippines’ official Facebook account at 4:33pm in Manila, the airline’s head of communications and public affairs Steve Dailisan explained how the outage caused unexpected rebooting of machines, leading to some operational disruptions related to check-in processes and navigating the AirAsia MOVE app.
Dailisan was quick to assure passengers that the airline was doing what it could under the circumstances, saying: “[We are] closely monitoring the situation and are in constant communication with Navitaire and Microsoft. Our top priority is to minimise any impact on our guests and ensure that all systems are restored to full functionality as soon as possible.”
Source: GMA News / AirAsia Philippines / Cebu Pacific / CAAP
Meanwhile, Japan Airlines’ (JAL) website and online booking facility were down for about five hours from 2pm to 7pm JST. While it is suspected that the crash was caused by the same IT issue affecting other airline sites and operations, JAL officials have told the media they are still in the process of investigating the matter.
Singapore Airlines reported a similar issue affecting its off-premises booking service at ION. As of 8pm (MNL/SIN), the system is back online.
Source: NHK
Several Asian airlines flying out of Tokyo’s Narita Airport noted issues regarding their online systems as early as 1:40pm JST,
Jetstar Japan Co. reported experiencing system malfunctions, including boarding procedures, from around 1:40 p.m., with the issues likely linked to problems reported worldwide with Microsoft’s systems.
However, Jetstar Asia CEO John Simeone was quick to assure the public that, while there would be delays in Japan as well as other airports in Asia, there would be no flight cancellations.
Simeone said: “[Our operations are] currently impacted by [the] global software issue that is affecting airlines and other businesses around the world. [However,] we are working with our providers to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.”
The Narita International Airport Corporation also reported that HK Express and Jeju Air counters also experienced system problems throughout much of Friday afternoon.
Source: Kyodo News / Jetstar
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