The new Microsoft downtime has caused widespread disruptions across various industries and businesses. Flight operations worldwide have been halted, affecting the stock market and banking services as well as many emergency services.
The outage was primarily attributed to a problem with CrowdStrike Falcon, a cybersecurity platform used by Microsoft.
Major cargo carriers, such as Etihad, Qatar, and Lufthansa, displayed notifications on their websites alerting consumers that this issue may temporarily affect or degrade the booking experience on the airlines’ booking portals.
Global logistics company Kuehne + Nagel stated in a quote to The STAT Trade Times: “Kuehne+Nagel is closely monitoring the IT outage impacting airlines and airports worldwide. We will continue to assess any impact on our customers’ air cargo and communicate any relevant information to our customers. Kuehne+Nagel is only indirectly impacted as our own IT systems are operating normally.”
Freightos, which operates a booking and payments platform for international freight said that their operations have not been affected in response to The STAT Trade Times’ query, while MSC Air Cargo declined to comment.
Indian cargo airline, Quikjet has also confirmed that its flight operations remain unaffected.
Prominent all-cargo European carrier, Cargolux informed through its website that its flights have not been affected due to this outage.
American carriers like American Airlines, Delta, and United grounded their flights. While FedEx and UPS have issued warnings about possible delays in package deliveries.
In a Twitter post, the FAA mentioned that “It is closely monitoring a technical issue impacting IT systems at U.S. airlines. Several airlines have requested FAA assistance with the ground.”
Meanwhile in India, IndiGo cancelled more than 200 flights, and operations of other airlines, including SpiceJet, Vistara, and Akasa Air, were also affected.
