Airline systems now normal, says MoCA, debate begins on digital vulnerabilities

India's Ministry of Civil Aviation has put out that since 3 AM, airline systems across airports have started working normally. Flight operations are going smoothly now even as there is a backlog because of disruptions yesterday, and it is getting cleared gradually. By noon today, we expect all issues to be resolved, the Ministry said.

On flight operations amidst Microsoft global outage, MoS Civil Aviation, Murlidhar Mahol clarified,"Yesterday, there were problems with flight operations due to an outage. Today, Microsoft has solved the issue and flight operations have resumed and it is back to normal. Passengers had to face difficulties yesterday but today DGCA has informed us that operations are running smoothly now...".

An extensive IT outage on Friday disrupted operations globally, affecting various sectors from travel to finance. CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity firm serving multiple industries, experienced downtime, leading to flight cancellations by Indian carriers and grounding of flights worldwide.

IndiGo, India’s largest airline, alone cancelled 192 flights due to the outage. The disruption forced airports to resort to manual processes like issuing handwritten boarding passes. Services gradually resumed by evening after hours of downtime, yet the incident highlighted vulnerabilities in digital infrastructure across sectors.

The outage's ripple effects impacted global equity markets, contributing to an approximate Rs 8 trillion market capitalisation decline in India. While major stock exchanges like the National Stock Exchange and BSE maintained normal operations, disruptions were observed at international exchanges such as the London Stock Exchange and Singapore Exchange.

In India, some Windows users encountered startup errors like the “blue screen of death” due to issues with Microsoft’s Azure cloud and 365 office software services, coinciding with the broader IT disruptions. Financial systems in India remained largely resilient, with minor disruptions reported by about 10 banks and NBFCs, which were promptly addressed by the Reserve Bank of India.

Overall, the incident underscored the risks associated with digital reliance and interconnected technologies, prompting reflections on preparedness and resilience in the face of such global disruptions.