Microsoft outage: The aviation ministry has asked Indian airlines to inform passengers via texts regarding delays and cancellation of flights amid an outage of Microsoft Windows.
“Have instructed airlines to inform passengers via SMS with immediate flights on the check in delays and cancellation. Airline crew managing the situation on-ground. Airport authorities are working on an on-ground management plan due to the influx of passengers,” said a Ministry of Civil Aviation spokesperson.
This comes amid Indian airlines, including IndiGo, SpiceJet, Akasa Air issued statements about experiencing significant disruptions due to the ongoing outage with Microsoft Azure.
As a temporary measure, airlines have issued hand-written boarding passes for immediate flights. Passengers with cabin baggage have been prioritised for boarding, sources said. Airport officials have also been instructed to manage footfall at the airport.
The average delay for departure at Delhi airport is estimated to be 35 minutes, while Bengaluru and Mumbai airports are witnessing delays of 32 minutes and 40 minutes respectively, said sources.
Delhi International Airport Limited said, “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.”
Meanwhile, the government has taken cognisance of the Microsoft outage. Senior officials of DoT and MeitY are speaking to Microsoft to resolve the outage.
Banks, media, airline and airport, company and broker operations from across the world have been impacted by the outage. The outage is believed to be from the side of CrowdStrike Engineering, a cybersecurity services firm that works with Microsoft, which has led to a major tech issue impacting millions with Windows computers worldwide.
(With inputs from Karishma Asoodani and Chetan Bhutani)