Global IT outage grounds flights, hits banks, media

A major outage wreaked havoc on global computer systems yesterday, grounding flights in the United States, derailing television broadcasts in the UK and impacting telecommunications in Australia.

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Major US air carriers including Delta, United and American Airlines grounded all flights yesterday over a communication issue, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Flights were suspended at Berlin Brandenburg airport in Germany due to a “technical problem,” a spokeswoman told AFP.

“There are delays to check in, and flight operations had to be canceled until 10 a.m.,” the spokeswoman said, adding that she could not say when they would resume.

All airports in Spain were experiencing “disruptions” from an IT outage that hit several companies worldwide yesterday, the airport operator Aena said.

Hong Kong’s airport also said some airlines had been affected, with its authority issuing a statement in which it linked the disruption to a Microsoft outage.

In the Philippines, some local airlines are facing technical issues due to the system outage.

Cebu Pacific (CEB) and AirAsia Philippines advised passengers that they are currently experiencing technical issues, reportedly related to technology provider CrowdStrike.

“The technical issue requires us to handle affected processes manually, potentially causing delays. We are working closely with our teams to mitigate disruptions to our operations and will provide regular updates as the situation progresses. We appreciate your patience and understanding,” the CEB management stated.

AirAsia Philippines came out with a separate statement, saying a global outage affecting Microsoft services has been confirmed by its partner, Navitaire.

It stated that the outage is causing unexpected rebooting of machines, leading to some operational disruptions related to check-in processes and navigating its AirAsia MOVE app.

The UK’s biggest rail operator meanwhile warned of possible train cancellations due to IT issues, while photos posted online showed large queues forming at Sydney Airport in Australia.