CHENNAI: Regular passenger-centric activities at the Chennai airport were disrupted on Friday, official sources said.
‘Server outage’ was the reason for the disruption in routine activities, they said.
Coimbatore international airport has announced the cancellation of three Indigo flight services to Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Chennai. The flights will be cancelled between 6.30 pm and 7.30 pm.The airport director, Senthil Valavan, has confirmed this information.
Indigo is experiencing significant delays and cancellations across India due to a system crash. According to sources within the company, “Indigo system crashed,” resulting in the cancellation of 190 flights so far.
The issue with Indigo’s software is believed to be related to a global outage affecting Microsoft, as Indigo’s software is supported by the tech giant. The outage has been “reported globally,” suggesting that the problem extends beyond Indigo’s operations.
Several airlines, including SpiceJet, Indigo, Akasa Air, Vistara, Air India, and Air India Express, posted messages on social media platform X, acknowledging the technical challenges they were facing.
SpiceJet stated, “We are currently experiencing technical challenges with our service provider, affecting online services including booking, check-in, and manage booking functionalities.”
“As a result, we have activated manual check-in and boarding processes across airports. We kindly request passengers with upcoming travel plans to arrive at the airport earlier than usual to complete check-in at our counters. We sincerely regret for any inconvenience this may cause and assure you that our teams are diligently working with our service provider to resolve these issues promptly. Thank you for your patience and co-operation during this time,” SpiceJet added.
“Our systems are currently impacted by a Microsoft outage, which is also affecting other companies. During this time booking, check-in, access to your boarding pass, and some flights may be impacted,” IndiGo said in an update on X.
“We are all hands-on decks and are working to restore stability and normalcy. Our digital team is also coordinating closely with Microsoft Azure to resolve these issues swiftly,” it stated.
Budget carrier Akasa said: “Due to infrastructure issues with our service provider, some of our online services, including booking, check-in and manage booking services will be temporarily unavailable. Currently we are following manual check-in and boarding processes at the airports,”
The airline requested its passengers with immediate travel plans to reach airport early to check in, as a precautionary measure.
Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw stated that the IT ministry is in contact with Microsoft regarding the global outage and confirmed that the NIC network is not affected.
In a post on X, the minister said the cause of the outage has been identified, and updates have been released to resolve the issue.
“MEITY is in touch with Microsoft and its associates regarding the global outage… NIC network is not affected,” the minister said.
CERT-In, in an advisory, attributed the Microsoft outage to a Crowdstrike update and rated its severity as “critical.”
The advisory mentioned that Windows hosts related to the Crowdstrike agent ‘Falcon Sensor’ are experiencing outages and crashes due to a recent update received in the product, resulting in a “Blue Screen of Death (BSOD)” related to Falcon Sensor.
