The disruptions, which began in the early hours of Friday morning, included international flight delays, inability to check in online, blocked reservations for flights and trains, and difficulties accessing online banking and media services.
Microsoft said it was working to resolve the issue, stating, “We are aware that the problem is affecting some of our customers. We understand the impact this may have and are working to restore services as quickly as possible for those still experiencing disruptions.”
Massive flight disruptions and airport delays
The outage has led to widespread flight cancellations and delays, particularly affecting airlines such as American Airlines, Delta Airlines, United Airlines, Allegiant Air, Lufthansa, Air France, KLM, Eurowings and SAS.
Operations at Berlin-Brandenburg Airport (BER) in Germany and Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam have been temporarily suspended. Passenger service delays were also reported at Prague Airport, Brussels, and many airports in Spain.
Additionally, low-cost carrier Ryanair, Swiss air traffic control company Swissguide, and Swissport, which manages passenger and cargo services at airports worldwide, have reported issues.
At some airports, including in Belfast, Northern Ireland, electronic display boards have been replaced with makeshift paper substitutes.
Healthcare, rail services, electronic payments affected
Affected countries included the United States, Australia, China, Turkey, Spain, the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Germany, France, Norway and India.
In Germany, two hospitals in Lübeck and Kiel canceled planned surgeries due to the outage, though patient care and emergency services continued without disruption.
In Japan, rail services have been halted, and similar issues have affected the UK’s largest rail operator, Govia Thameslink Railway. In Australia and New Zealand, disruptions extended to telecommunications and aviation services, while electronic payment issues were impacting customers of institutions such as the Commonwealth Bank.
(mp/gs)
Source: IAR/AFP/Reuters/PAP/BBC/Sky News/x.com