Flights, markets, banks, stock exchanges: Microsoft outage affects several sectors

From flights to supermarkets and banking operations, the global Microsoft outage is disrupting multiple sectors and threatens to cause massive problems if it is not resolved soon. In India, three air carriers – IndiGo, SpiceJet and Akasa Air – are facing technical issues that are affecting bookings, check-ins and flight updates. Airlines are now checking in passengers manually.

“We are currently experiencing a technical issue in providing updates on flight disruptions. Our team is actively working to resolve the issue. We regret any inconvenience caused and will update you once the issue is resolved. Thank you for your patience and cooperation,” SpiceJet said in a post on X.

Akasa Air said that some of their online services are currently unavailable. “Due to infrastructure issues with our service provider, some of our online services, including booking, check-in and booking management services, will be temporarily unavailable. We are currently following manual check-in and boarding processes at airports and hence passengers with urgent travel plans are requested to reach the airport early to check-in at our counters,” Akasa Air posted on X.

IndiGo has also issued a statement. The statement said, “Our systems are currently affected by a Microsoft glitch, which is also affecting other companies. During this time, bookings, check-in, access to boarding passes and some flights may be affected. We appreciate your patience.”

Delhi Airport has said that some services have been affected. “Due to a global IT issue, some services at Delhi Airport have been temporarily affected. We are working closely with all our stakeholders to minimise the inconvenience to our passengers. Passengers are requested to get in touch with the respective airline or the help desk on the ground for updated flight information. We regret the inconvenience caused to our passengers,” it said in a statement.

Australia is among the worst-hit countries. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the disruption has affected ABC News 24, which is struggling to run news packages. The crisis then hit Woolworths supermarkets, where the disruption caused the checkout system to crash. Many customers also complained that their cards were not working. The police system also crashed.

Melbourne Airport said in a statement that a global technology problem has affected the check-in process of several airlines. Virgin Australia has said that all flights at Sydney Airport are unable to arrive or depart due to this disruption. According to The Sydney Morning Herald, an employee at the Virgin Australia lounge said, “The airline has stopped all incoming and outgoing flights so it is completely closed; no flights are coming in and no flights are going out.”

According to the report, the London Stock Exchange has also been affected by this disruption. The US Federal Aviation Administration has said that all flights of several major US airlines, including Delta, United and American Airlines, were halted on Friday morning due to a communication problem. 911 emergency services have also been affected in several US states. British news channel Sky News has been taken off air.

In Europe, technical problems in Amsterdam are causing check-in delays. At Germany’s Berlin Brandenburg airport, flight operations had to be cancelled due to a “technical problem”, a spokeswoman told AFP. She said she could not say when flights would resume.

Millions of Windows users around the world are experiencing the Blue Screen of Death, which causes computers to shut down or restart. In some cases, computers are restarting repeatedly, affecting services as users lose unsaved data and valuable time.

As soon as the system shuts down, a message appears on the screen, “Your PC has encountered a problem and needs to restart. We’re gathering some error information right now, and then we’ll restart for you.”

Blue screen errors, also called black screen errors or STOP code errors, can occur when a serious problem forces Windows to shut down or restart unexpectedly.

Microsoft 365 said in a statement that they are investigating the issue.