Global Air Travel Disrupted by Microsoft Outage
Global air travel was thrown into chaos on Friday morning due to a widespread Microsoft outage. The outage affected the 365 app, which is used by many major airlines for their operations. By 8 a.m. ET, over 1,000 U.S. flights had been canceled and more than 1,700 were delayed, causing significant disruptions for travelers.
Impact on Airlines
Airlines reported that the outage affected their back-end systems, disrupting the transmission of critical data such as weight and balance information necessary for planes to take off. This led to long queues at ticket counters and instances of “blue screens of death” – error pages that appear when Microsoft programs fail to run – appearing at various airports.
Response from Airlines
Major airlines such as Delta, United, and American Airlines took swift action to address the issue. Delta Air Lines resumed some flights after initial suspensions and had canceled about 330 U.S. flights by 8 a.m. United Airlines also managed to resume some flights but warned passengers to expect disruptions throughout the day. American Airlines, on the other hand, had resumed operations by 5 a.m. Eastern time after canceling around 279 U.S. flights.
In a statement, United Airlines acknowledged the challenges posed by third-party outages and issued a waiver to facilitate changes to travel plans. American Airlines apologized for the inconvenience caused by the technical issue and assured customers of the safe resumption of operations.
In conclusion, the Microsoft outage had a significant impact on global air travel, highlighting the interconnectivity of modern systems. While airlines worked diligently to resolve the issue and minimize disruptions, the incident serves as a reminder of the vulnerabilities inherent in our reliance on technology for essential services.
