DUBAI: Air passengers across the Arabian Gulf and around the world faced delays, cancellations and problems checking in as airports and airlines were caught up in a massive IT outage that also affected industries ranging from banks to media companies.
The travel industry was among the hardest hit with airports around the world, including Tokyo, Amsterdam, Berlin and several Spanish airports reporting problems with their systems and delays.
In Saudi Arabia’s capital city Riyadh, King Khalid International Airport reported disruptions on some flights, prompting authorities to set up a plan to use alternative systems.
The airport urged passengers to contact airlines before heading to the airport.
Saudi airline, flynas, apologized and reported disruptions in some flights, which led to take-off delays and slow online services.
“The airline is currently working with the service provider and all concerned parties to fix the issue and provide alternative systems to ensure that operations resume as soon as possible,” flynas said in a statement.
“We also apologize to our guests for the confusion caused by this global outage that is beyond our control. We thank them for their understanding of this emergency circumstance.
“We affirm flynas’ commitment to preserving the rights of travelers and compensating them in accordance with the Customer Rights Protection Regulations of the General Authority of Civil Aviation,” it added.
The operator of Dubai International Airport, one of the world's busiest airports and hub of Emirates airline, said on Friday the airport was operating normally again after a global system outage affected the check-in process of some airlines.
Saudi Arabia’s National Cybersecurity Authority issued a statement early Saturday saying that the impact of the outage to the Kingdom had been limited, adding that the authority has put in place exceptional measures to monitor threats and cyber risks and to respond to any cyber incidents if they occur.
Dubai Airports said in a statement the outage had impacted some airlines operating from terminals 1 and 2 but that the check-in process had been switched to an alternative system, which allowed normal processes to swiftly resume.
Flydubai, which operates out of Terminal 2, said that its operations had not been impacted.
Etihad Airways, which operates from Abu Dhabi’s Zayed International Airport, similarly said it was operating normally but that there could be limited delays across its network.
In a statement, a spokesman for Wizz Air Abu Dhabi said the company was monitoring closely the ongoing situation with IT outages due to a third-party provider affecting the aviation sector worldwide.
“We advise that all passengers arrive at the airport at least three hours before their scheduled departure time.
“Our teams are working closely with the relevant stakeholders across our network to ensure a seamless travel experience for all our passengers. Thank you for your patience and co-operation.”
And Kuwait International Airport said some flights had been impacted by the outage.
Carriers, media companies, banks and telecoms firms around the world reported on Friday that system outages were disrupting their operations.
A spokesperson for the Dubai-based national carrier Emirates said they were aware of the global IT disruption and are monitoring the situation closely.
“At this time, there has been no impact on Emirates’ flight operations,” she added.
But warned: “There may be delays to some flight timings later today, due to knock-on effects from delayed departures from some airports around our network.”
“Customers can check our website and app for the latest flight information, and are advised to update their contact details on their booking.”
In a statement released on social media platform X, the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs said some of its systems had been impacted by the outage.
“Please be informed of a global technical issue that has affected some of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ electronic systems, including MoFA’s attestation service. We advise users to refrain from conducting any transactions until this issue is resolved,” the statement read.
International airlines, including Ryanair, Europe’s largest airline by passenger numbers, warned of problems with their booking systems and other disruptions.
The Saudi Data & AI Auhthority confirmed it had not been affected by the outage.
In a statement posted on X it said: “SDAIA confirms that its systems and the national systems hosted by it in the Kingdom are not affected by the technical failure that struck most countries of the world today.”
In a statement, Crowdstrike holdings said it was actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for windows hosts. “Issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed,” the statement said.
According to an alert sent by Crowdstrike to its clients and reviewed by Reuters, the company’s “Falcon Sensor” software was causing Microsoft Windows to crash and display a blue screen, known informally as the “Blue Screen of Death”.
The alert, which was sent at 0530 GMT on Friday, also shared a manual workaround to rectify the issue.
FASTFACT
Who are CrowdStrike?
The vast cybersecurity company does business globally, selling software and investigates major hacks. The company also helps run cybersecurity investigations for the US government. Most notably the company investigated the Russian hack of Democratic National Committee computers during the 2016 US election.
The Swiss Federal Office for Cyber Security (BACS) confirmed that a faulty update or misconfiguration by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike had led to international tech outages. “The BACS is aware of the outages mentioned and has received corresponding reports from various companies and critical infrastructures,” the BACS said in a statement.
“A faulty update or misconfiguration by CrowdStrike is leading to these system outages. The BACS is in contact with the companies affected.”
However, cybersecurity agencies said there was no information to suggest the outage was a cyber security incident.
The office of Australia's National Cyber Security Coordinator Michelle McGuinness and France’s cybersecurity agency said there was no evidence that a global IT outage was caused by a cyberattack.
“The teams are fully mobilised to identify and support the affected entities in France and to understand... the origin of this outage,” the national cybersecurity agency (ANSSI) said, adding “There is no evidence to suggest that this outage is the result of a cyberattack.”
The outages rippled far and wide, wreaking havoc on global computer systems. Microsoft users worldwide, including banks and airlines, reported widespread outages, hours after the technology company said it was gradually fixing the issue which affected access to Microsoft 365 apps and services.
The UAE foreign ministry said the global cyber outage had affected some of its electronic systems and it advised users to avoid any transactions till the issue has been resolved. It urged citizens abroad to contact their airlines before heading to the airports to avoid delays.
The UAE’s Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority issued a statement, warning Crowdstrike users of a “technical issue” with the “software update.”
“We advise users of the program to hold off on any updates or downloads of CrowdStrike software until the issue is resolved.”
Important and Urgent Notice from TDRA to #CrowdStrike Software Users pic.twitter.com/stsrabV84S— تدرا TDRA (@tdrauae) July 19, 2024
Major travel disruptions
Major US air carriers including Delta, United and American Airlines grounded all flights early on Friday over a communication issue, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
“All... flights regardless of destination” were grounded due to the “communication issues,” the FAA said in a notice to airlines.
The UK’s largest rail franchise was facing “widespread IT issues” on its four train lines said, warning of possible cancellations.
“We are currently experiencing widespread IT issues across our entire network”, the four lines operated by Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) posted on X.
Other transport systems across the UK and Ireland faced similar IT issues, with Ryanair experiencing disruption due to “a global third party IT outage”.
British airports including London Luton and Edinburgh warned of longer waiting times for passengers because of the glitch, while Sky News television was temporarily off air.
Passengers at Britain’s Edinburgh Airport were unable to use automated boarding pass scanners, and monitors at security displayed a message saying “server offline”, a Reuters witness reported.
Edinburgh Airport was checking boarding passes manually, the witness said.
A health booking system used by doctors in England was also offline, medical officials said on X on Friday.
The global outage was not being treated as a malicious act, a UK government security source said.
The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said security experts were not treating it as a cyber-related security issue.
Similarly, passengers at Dusseldorf airport are facing disruptions to Eurowings’ check-in and boarding processes due to the malfunction.
Hong Kong Airport Authority said airlines affected by a Microsoft outage had switched to manual check-in and flight operations have not been affected.
Three Indian airlines announced disruptions to their booking systems on Friday, matching widespread technical problems reported by flight operators around the world.
“Our systems are currently impacted by a Microsoft outage,” budget carrier IndiGo said in a post on social media platform X, with airlines Akasa Air and SpiceJet also reporting technical issues.
Turkish Airlines cancelled 84 flights after the IT outage, while Air France said it also suffered IT disruption, but not at Paris airports.
Spanish airport operator Aena on Friday also reported a computer systems “incident” at all Spanish airports which may cause flight delays.
“We are working to solve it as soon as possible. Meanwhile, operations are continuing with manual systems,” the airport operator said in a post on X platform.
In Berlin, airport authorities have halted all flights until 10 a.m. (0800 GMT) due to a technical fault, a spokesperson said.
Earlier on Friday, airport operator BER said in a post on social media platform X that check-ins were delayed due to the error.
The spokesperson did not give details about the nature of the problem.
Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, one of Europe’s busiest hubs, was also affected by the global cyber outage, a spokesperson said.
“The outage has an impact on flights flying from and to Schiphol,” he said, adding that it was not yet clear how many flights were affected.
The outage also wrought havoc on IT systems across Australia on Friday, with the country’s national broadcaster, its largest international airport, and a major telecommunications company reporting issues.
Australia’s National Cyber Security Coordinator said the “large-scale technical outage” was caused by an issue with a “third-party software platform.”
National broadcaster ABC said its systems had been crippled by a “major” glitch.
Photos posted online showed large queues forming at Sydney Airport, which said some airline operations and terminal services had been affected.
Some self-checkout terminals at one of the country’s largest supermarket chains displayed error messages.
Telecommunications firm Telstra also said some of its systems had been disrupted.
Major companies report outage
The website DownDectector, which tracks user-reported Internet outages, recorded growing outages in services at Visa, ADT security and Amazon, and airlines including American Airlines and Delta.
Microsoft 365 posted on X that the company was “working on rerouting the impacted traffic to alternate systems to alleviate impact in a more expedient fashion” and that they were “observing a positive trend in service availability.”
Australian outages reported on the site included the banks NAB, Commonwealth and Bendigo, and the airlines Virgin Australia and Qantas, as well as Internet and phone providers such as Telstra.
News outlets in Australia — including the ABC and Sky News — were unable to broadcast on their TV and radio channels, and reported sudden shutdowns of Windows-based computers.
With Agencies
