New Delhi: Even a day after global information technology (IT) disruption, Indian airlines are struggling to normalise their flight operations on Saturday. Budget carrier IndiGo had to cancel as many as 191 flights across the country due to the global outage in Microsoft applications that affected air services in India and abroad.
In a message on X, IndiGo thanked the passengers for demonstrating their patience and urged them to cooperate in the midst of a major IT trouble. “Flights are cancelled due to the cascading effect of the worldwide travel system outage, beyond our control. We truly appreciate your patience and support,” IndiGo said in a statement.
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Many flights of Air India, Vistara, SpiceJet and Akasa airlines have also been impacted due to the IT outrage. “All airlines were not able to issue computerised boarding passes, modify the tickets and settle refund due to disruptions in the IT network,” said an airline officials at IGI airport in Delhi, adding that some passengers had to issue manual boarding passes.
“Five flights of IndiGo scheduled to depart from the two airports in Goa were cancelled on Friday while many other flights were delayed due to the breakdown in Microsoft cloud services. Passengers at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad also witnessed the cancellation of their flights to Visakhapatnam, Tirupati, Ahmedabad and Bengaluru.
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Several other airlines issued advisories following the global outage, urging passengers to check their flight status before heading to the airport. Many flights were delayed as airlines had to issue boarding passes manually due to the automatic system being down.
MoCA & AAI join hands to minimie passengers miseries
Union minister for civil aviation Ram Mohan Naidu said that his ministry and Airports Authority of India (AAI) are actively managing the situation. The civil aviation ministry in collaboration with AAI has implemented manual backup systems to maintain operational continuity, Naidu said in a statement.
Services like bookings, check-in and boarding process including issuance of boarding passes, are being carried out manually, thereby taking longer than expected time and leading to long queues at airports. Airports were crowded with stranded travelers as several airlines grounded their flights.
Meity engages with Microsoft to address global outage
The ministry of electronics and information technology (MEITY) has been actively engaging with Microsoft and its partners to address the global outage. Updates are being rolled out to rectify the problems, and the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) has issued a technical advisory to assist affected organizations.This outage has affected various critical services, including flight bookings, check-ins, and boarding processes. Although, National Informatics Centre (NIC) network remains operational, rippling effects of IT disruption are felt across the aviation sector.
