As a massive Microsoft outage has halted multiple operations across the world, the impact has been widely felt by many Indian firms as well. Top officials from the Indian Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeITY) are in talks with Microsoft to address the outage, according to sources.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation has directed Indian airlines to notify passengers via SMS about flight delays and cancellations arising from a Microsoft Windows outage.
A ministry spokesperson stated, “Airlines have been instructed to promptly inform passengers via SMS about check-in delays and cancellations for upcoming flights. Airline staff are actively managing the situation on the ground, while airport authorities are devising a management plan to handle the increased passenger traffic.”
The disruption is affecting Indian carriers such as IndiGo, SpiceJet, and Akasa Air, which have reported significant issues due to the ongoing Microsoft Azure outage.
As a temporary solution, airlines are issuing handwritten boarding passes for immediate flights, with priority given to passengers with cabin baggage for boarding. Airport officials have also been tasked with controlling the flow of passengers within the terminals.
Sources reveal that the average departure delay at Delhi airport stands at 35 minutes, with Bengaluru and Mumbai airports experiencing delays of 32 and 40 minutes respectively.
Delhi International Airport Limited acknowledged, “Due to the global IT issue, some of the services at the Delhi Airport were temporarily impacted.We are closely working with all our stakeholders to minimise the inconvenience to our flyers. Passengers are requested to be in touch with the airline concerned or the help desk on ground for updated flight information.”
(With inputs from Chetan Bhutani)