Over 200 IndiGo flights cancelled as Microsoft outage impacts airlines ops

Budget carrier IndiGo on Friday had to cancel as many as 200 flights across the country following the global outage in Microsoft applications that affected air services in India and abroad.

“Flights are cancelled due to the cascading effect of the worldwide travel system outage, beyond our control. We truly appreciate your patience and support,” IndiGo said in a statement.

The airline also said that the option to rebook a flight or claim a refund was temporarily unavailable.

Five flights of IndiGo scheduled to depart from the two airports in Goa were cancelled on Friday while many other flights were delayed due to the breakdown in Microsoft cloud services.

Additionally, passengers at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad also witnessed the cancellation of their flights to Visakhapatnam, Tirupati, Ahmedabad and Bengaluru.

Several other airlines issued advisories following the global outage, urging passengers to check their flight status before heading to the airport. Many flights were delayed as airlines had to issue boarding passes manually due to the automatic system being down.

Meanwhile, Union Minister for Civil Aviation Ram Mohan Naidu said that his ministry and Airports Authority of India (AAI) are actively managing the situation. The civil aviation ministry in collaboration with AAI has implemented manual backup systems to maintain operational continuity, Naidu said in a statement.

“We have instructed all airlines and airport authorities to keep passengers informed about their flight status and provide necessary assistance,” Naidu said, adding that additional measures include regular updates on flight status and deployment of extra staff to assist passengers and address their concerns.

Services like bookings, check-in and boarding process including issuance of boarding passes, are being carried out manually, thereby taking longer than expected time and leading to long queues at airports.