Microsoft cloud outage paralyzes hundreds of flights across the globe

ISLAMABAD: A major disruption to Microsoft Corp.’s cloud services not only has led to numerous flight cancellations and delays around the world  on Friday but also caused disruption to broadcasters and banks.

The outage affected several airlines, grounded planes and disrupted flight operations.

Outages have been reported in Australia, the US, the UK, and India, affecting institutions ranging from banks, media houses, and stock markets to government branches and airports.

Microsoft’s status pages have reported ongoing issues with the Azure cloud and Microsoft 365 services, particularly in the Central US region. “We are aware of this issue and have engaged multiple teams. We have identified the underlying cause,” Microsoft said. “We are currently applying mitigation measures. Customers should see signs of recovery at this time as mitigation is applied to all resources in the region.”

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The Allied Pilots Association, which represents American Airlines pilots, reported that its website was taken offline due to the Microsoft outage. This incident compounded the challenges for Frontier Airlines as it affected booking and check-in systems and had knock-on effects on flights. Frontier operates about 150 aircraft, according to Cirium.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) also reported that Allegiant Airlines and Delta Air Lines had imposed ground stops due to communications problems related to the outage.

Sydney Airport confirmed that although flights were arriving and departing throughout the evening, some delays were expected due to the global technical outage affecting several airlines.

In New Zealand, Christchurch International Airport says it is experiencing IT issues across a number of systems which may affect flight arrivals and departures.

And a spokesperson for New Zealand’s parliament says their computer network is having problems.

Airports in Japan and India also affected

Japan’s Narita airport, around 60km (37miles) from Tokyo, says airlines JetStar, Jeju Air, Qantas, HK Express and Spring Japan are having issues with their systems.

And in India, Delhi airport says some services have been temporarily impacted.

Reports of IT outages are coming in from around the world

Airlines, broadcasters and banks are affected – including Sky News in the UK, which is off-air

In Australia, airports, shops, and communications are affected, Australia’s National Cyber Security Coordinator described it as a “large-scale technical outage”

Railway companies in the UK report delays

Microsoft says it is continuing to deal with “the lingering impact” of the outage

This widespread disruption underscores how heavily airlines rely on cloud services to operate and the far-reaching impact technical problems in these systems can have.