Thousands stranded at NAIA as global IT outage continues

At least 25,500 travelers were stranded as 45 flights at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) were canceled yesterday following the global IT systems outage that has crippled flight operations of local and foreign airlines since Friday.

- RUDY SANTOS

The Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) announced that flights operated by Cebu Pacific, CebGo, Air Asia and United Airlines were canceled because of the CrowdStrike system outage, which greatly affected check-in, booking and flight operations.

Of the total stranded passengers, 12,500 were Cebu Pacific passengers while 13,000 were Air Asia’s.

Cebu Pacific announced through Facebook the cancellation of its international 5J flights bound for and returning from Incheon, Denpasar, Bangkok, Taipei and Shanghai as well as 5J domestic flights for Cebu, Puerto Princesa, Tacloban, Cagayan de Oro, Laoag, Iloilo, Dipolog, Butuan, Caticlan, Davao and vice versa, as well as CebGo DG flights to Legazpi and Cebu.

AirAsia also announced that its Z2 flights for Cebu, Caticlan and Iloilo were canceled.

Also included in the announcement was the cancellation of United Airlines flight UA 190 to San Francisco.