New Delhi:

Airports across India are still grappling with issues from yesterday’s massive Microsoft outage. Although the situation has improved significantly since Friday’s chaotic scenes, passengers continue to face challenges, particularly at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI).

At Delhi’s IGI Airport’s Terminal 3, passengers experienced some improvement today, but a few problems persist. Yesterday, the automatic self-drop baggage and check-in machines were non-functional, causing long queues outside Gate No. 5 in Terminal 3. While many passengers can print out their boarding passes today, international travellers still face issues with boarding pass generation, with some being issued manual passes inside the airport.

The Digi Yatra machines at Gates 1-3, which facilitate seamless entry, remain non-operational, necessitating manual entries. Display boards showing wait times, flight schedules, and other crucial information, which were down yesterday, are now functional. However, the overall system has not yet fully recovered, as confirmed by airport officials.

Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport fared better than its counterparts in Delhi and Bengaluru. Although long queues were reported, operations are running more smoothly today. Nonetheless, two flights, one to Varanasi and one to Kochi, were cancelled this morning, and several international flights were rescheduled. This is an improvement from yesterday when nine domestic flights, all operated by IndiGo, were cancelled. IndiGo has warned of potential cancellations today but expressed optimism that yesterday’s disruption will not be repeated as the Microsoft outage was not reported today.

Global Outage

The outage, attributed to an update by global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, disrupted Microsoft’s Windows systems worldwide, affecting financial institutions, airlines, hospitals, and media channels. In India, this caused airline check-in systems to crash, leading to delays and the cancellation of dozens of flights. IndiGo alone cancelled around 200 flights, with hundreds more delayed as manual check-in procedures significantly slowed the process.

The Indian financial sector experienced minor disruptions at about ten banks and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), which have largely been resolved, according to the Reserve Bank of India. However, the outage’s impact on airports from Chennai to Delhi was severe, with passengers facing long queues due to unavailable web check-in services and manual ticketing processes.

Airlines such as IndiGo, Akasa Air, Vistara, Air India, SpiceJet, and Air India Express acknowledged the issues via social media. Passengers received handwritten boarding passes, and the manual ticketing and luggage check-in process extended to 30-40 minutes per person, leading to frustration and overcrowded lounges.

Other Airports

Besides Delhi and Mumbai, high-density airports like Bengaluru and Chennai saw the most significant impacts. At Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport, airlines such as IndiGo, Akasa, SpiceJet, and Air India Express initiated manual check-ins to ensure minimal disruption.  The technical glitch has been fully resolved at Bengaluru airport, and operations have returned to normal. However, there is slight congestion due to the residual impact of yesterday’s operational delays. Due to the backlog, it will take a few hours for the crowds to clear.

Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airport experienced cancellations of 23 flights, including IndiGo flights to Visakhapatnam, Tirupati, Ahmedabad, and Bengaluru.

Ministerial Assurances

Union Civil Aviation Minister Rammohan Naidu assured that the ministry and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) are managing the situation using manual methods to minimise disruption. Minister for Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw confirmed that the cause of the outage had been identified and that updates had been released to resolve the issue. According to the Aviation Ministry, systems at airports across the country started operating normally from 3 am this morning. 

“By noon today, we expect all issues to be resolved,” the ministry said in a statement. 

CrowdStrike confirmed the problem was due to a defect in a content update for Windows hosts and not a security incident or cyberattack.

New Delhi:

A major tech issue has affected millions of Windows computer systems worldwide, causing a sudden shutdown or restart. Microsoft Inc. said the error is due to a recent CrowdStrike update.

According to Microsoft’s Service Health Status updates, the preliminary root cause is “a configuration change in a portion of our Azure backend workloads (that has) caused interruption between storage and compute resources, and which (has) resulted in connectivity failures…”

These failures, the company said, had affected “downstream (and dependent) Microsoft 365 services”.

CrowdStrike Engineering – a cybersecurity services firm that works with Microsoft – has identified a content deployment related to this issue and reverted those changes.

The company has posted steps for resolution for affected Windows users.

Workaround

What Microsoft Said

In a detailed thread on X, the software services giant said it is “investigating an issue impacting users ability to access various Microsoft 365 apps and services”.

READ | Windows Systems Restarting, Throwing ‘Blue Screen Of Death’ Errors

“We’re working on rerouting impacted traffic to alternate systems to alleviate impact in a more expedient fashion,” Microsoft said, adding, “We’re still observing a positive trend in service availability while we continue to redirect impacted traffic.”

We’re working on rerouting the impacted traffic to alternate systems to alleviate impact in a more expedient fashion. More info is posted in the admin center under MO821132 and on https://t.co/Htn4qQEnsp

— Microsoft 365 Status (@MSFT365Status) July 19, 2024

“We still expect users will continue to see gradual relief as we continue to mitigate the issue.”

Our services are still seeing continuous improvements while we continue to take mitigation actions. More details can be found within the admin center under MO821132 and https://t.co/Htn4qQEnsp

— Microsoft 365 Status (@MSFT365Status) July 19, 2024

Services are seeing “continuous improvements while we continue to take mitigation actions”.

READ | What Microsoft Said After Global Outage Hits Flight, Bank Ops

“We remain committed in treating this event with the highest priority and urgency while we continue to address the lingering impact for the remaining Microsoft 365 apps that are in a degraded state.”

Affected And Recovering Microsoft Services

Microsoft said impacted services may include, but are not limited to, services and software like PowerBI, Fabric, and Teams, as well as the Microsoft 365 admin center.

READ | Flights, Markets, Banks, Stock Exchange: Microsoft Outage Crippling Sectors

It also said “internal telemetry and customer signals” suggest some services had recovered, at least partially. These include Defender, OneNote, OneDrive for Business, and SharePoint Online.

Worldwide Windows Outage Impact

Services, including critical providers like police and government, across the world have been affected.

In India, SpiceJet has said it is experiencing “technical challenges” that have affected online ticket booking and check-in, as well as other functionalities.

” We kindly request passengers with upcoming travel plans to arrive at the airport earlier than usual to complete check-in at our counters,” the airline said on X.

New airline Akasa Air and industry veterans IndiGo have put out similar messages. Flight services at Chennai and Mumbai airports have also begun to be affected, sources have told NDTV.

pic.twitter.com/SI8mcURA1H

— IndiGo (@IndiGo6E) July 19, 2024

Around the world, Australia’s Virgin Australia said it is “aware of a large-scale IT outage impacting airlines and other businesses” and that it too had been affected.

“We are working to resolve this issue as soon as possible…” the airline said.

There are reports of flights being grounded in Australia and the United States.

Melbourne Airport is experiencing a global technology issue which is impacting check-in procedures for some airlines. Passengers flying with these airlines this afternoon are advised to allow a little extra time to check-in. Please check with your airline for flight updates. pic.twitter.com/pFjOjReMKX

— Melbourne Airport (@Melair) July 19, 2024

In the former country, the airports in Sydney and Melbourne have cited a “global technology issue” impacting its services. Contingency plans have been activated, both airports said.

Reuters, meanwhile, has reported of services being affected at the airport in German capital Berlin, and Spanish airport operators have confirmed an “incident” at their facilities, the BBC reported.

The tech problem has affected banks and financial services also, with reports the London Stock Exchange faces minor problems. The United Kingdom’s Sky News network is off air, the BBC said.

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