Microsoft IT Outage: Flights, Banks, More Outages Around the World

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — A widespread Microsoft outage disrupted flights, banks, media outlets and businesses across the world on Friday.

The escalation of outages continued hours after the technology company said it was gradually fixing an issue affecting access to Microsoft 365 apps and services.

The website DownDectector, which tracks internet outages reported by users, has recorded increasing outages in services from Visa, ADT security and Amazon, and airlines including American Airlines and Delta.

Media outlets in Australia reported that airlines, telecommunications providers, banks and social media broadcasters were disrupted because they lost access to computer systems. Some New Zealand banks said they were also offline.

Microsoft 365 posted on X that the company was “working on redirecting impacted traffic to alternative systems to alleviate the impact in a more convenient way” and that it was “observing a positive trend in service availability.”

The company did not respond to a request for comment. It did not explain further the cause of the interruption.

Meanwhile, major disruptions reported by airlines and airports have increased.

In the US, the FAA said United, American, Delta and Allegiant airlines were all grounded.

Airlines, railways and television stations in the UK were being disrupted by IT problems. Budget airline Ryanair, rail operators TransPennine Express and Govia Thameslink Railway, as well as broadcaster Sky News are among those affected.

“We are currently experiencing network-wide outages due to a global third-party IT outage that is beyond our control,” Ryanair said. “We advise all passengers to arrive at the airport at least three hours before their scheduled departure time.”

Widespread problems have been reported at Australian airports, where queues have grown and some passengers have been stranded as online check-in services and self-service booths have been discontinued. Passengers in Melbourne queued for more than an hour to check in.

Amsterdam Airport Schiphol said on its website that the disruption was having a “major impact on flights” to and from the busy European hub. The outage occurred on one of the busiest days of the year for the airport, at the start of many people’s summer holidays.

In Germany, Berlin Airport said on Friday morning that “due to a technical failure, there will be delays at check-in”. It said flights were suspended until 10 a.m. (0800 GMT), without giving details, German news agency dpa reported.

At Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci airport, some flights to the US were delayed, while others were not affected.

Australian outages reported on the website included NAB, Commonwealth and Bendigo banks, and airlines Virgin Australia and Qantas, as well as internet and phone providers such as Telstra.

Media outlets in Australia – including ABC and Sky News – were unable to broadcast on their TV and radio channels and reported sudden shutdowns of Windows-based computers. Some news presenters broadcast live online from darkened offices, in front of computers showing “blue screens of death.”

Shoppers were unable to pay at some supermarkets and stores due to payment system outages.

New Zealand banks ASB and Kiwibank said their services were down.

User X posted a screenshot of an alert from Crowdstrike that said the company was aware of “reports of crashes on Windows hosts” related to its Falcon Sensor platform. The alert was posted on a password-protected Crowdstrike website and could not be verified. Crowdstrike did not respond to a request for comment.