Global Microsoft outage disrupts flights worldwide

The major outage in Microsoft’s cloud services today has hit businesses across the world. Passengers lined up at the Mumbai T2 Departure terminal on Friday evening. (Express Photo by Amit Chakravarty)

Microsoft Windows PCs at airports, banks, health services, IT companies, and news outlets worldwide were crashing and showing the infamous Blue Screen of Death, causing machines to either shut down or restart automatically. The global outage also had an adverse impact on flight operations at the Pune Airport. (Express Photo By Pavan Khengre)

Handwritten boarding passes were issued to passengers and long queues were witnessed at the counters of airlines. (Express Photo)

It was reported that on late Thursday several users in the Central US region experienced issues with Azure services and its Microsoft 365 suite of apps. The picture shows passengers waiting at Delta Airlines’ counter, at Haneda International Airport in Tokyo. (Reuters)

Amid the Microsoft outage worldwide, IndiGo airline canceled all its flights on July 19. In a statement on X, the company said, “Flights are canceled due to the cascading effect of the worldwide travel system outage, beyond our control. The option to rebook/claim a refund is temporarily unavailable.” (AP)

Air passengers around the world faced delays and the U.S. government is holding out hopes that the transportation system would be back to normal by Saturday. Delayed travelers earlier in the day wait to check in inside Terminal C in Newark International Airport, after United Airlines and other airlines grounded flights. (Reuters)

The Microsoft outage affected flight operations at Singapore's Changi Airport Terminal 1 in Singapore. Changi airport also said check-ins were being handled manually. (Reuters)

The outage sparked chaos for passengers on what was one of the busiest travel days of the year in Europe as schools broke up for holiday. People wait for their flights at BER airport in Berlin, Germany. (Reuters)

Travelers stand in a line at Brussels International Airport in Brussels. (AP)

Spanish carrier Iberia said it had managed to avoid flight cancellations. Passengers wait at Barajas Airport, as Spanish airport operator Aena Friday reported a computer systems outage at all Spanish airports. (Reuters)

Meanwhile in Thailand, second largest airport of Don Mueang, Air Asia was also checking passengers in manually. Out of over 110,000 scheduled commercial flights on Friday, over 2000 were cancelled globally and more are expected to be called off, according to data from global aviation analytics firm Cirium.(Reuters)