Minister K. Rammohan Naidu. (Photo: DC)
New Delhi: Flight operations in India began to return to normal on Saturday following one of the largest IT outages in recent history. The Union civil aviation minister announced that all flight backlogs are being cleared and operations are now running smoothly.
Minister K. Rammohan Naidu confirmed that airline systems across airports, affected by the global outage, have started functioning normally. "Since 3 am on Saturday, airline systems have resumed normal operations, and flight operations are proceeding smoothly," Naidu stated. He also mentioned that the ministry is closely monitoring airport and airline operations to ensure that travel adjustments and refunds are handled appropriately.
The outage had caused chaos at airports across India, as online passenger booking, reservation, and boarding systems switched to manual mode. This led to longer processing times, resulting in delays and cancellations of hundreds of flights. By Saturday noon, the reservation and check-in systems of most airlines, including IndiGo, SpiceJet, Akasa, and Air India Express, were back in operation. Over 200 flights in India were cancelled or delayed due to the outage.
IndiGo Airlines reported that while significant progress had been made in restoring normal operations, customers might still experience delays and schedule disruptions over the weekend. SpiceJet confirmed that its systems at airports, ticket bookings, and call centres were functioning smoothly. Air India noted that despite some flight delays, none of its flights were cancelled on Friday. Akasa Airlines highlighted the efforts of their teams in maintaining continuity of services with no flight cancellations, despite manual check-in and boarding processes being in place.
The global IT outage also affected the mutual fund industry. The Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) reported that five asset management companies (AMCs) experienced disruptions, which were resolved by the end of the day. "Out of the 44 AMCs, five reported disruptions to some important functions, but these were resolved during the day without any material impact on operations," AMFI stated.
Indian Railway services remained unaffected by the Microsoft glitch, thanks to their in-house developed IT platform, the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS), according to railway official J. Sanjay Kumar.
The financial sector also faced operational disruptions. Edelweiss Mutual Fund experienced login issues on their website due to the Microsoft outage. Several traders and brokerages, including 5paisa, IIFL Securities, Motilal Oswal, and Angel One, faced disruptions but later restored their systems. The stock exchanges and clearing corporations in India reported no significant impact on trading and clearing activities. Out of the over 1,400 trading members, 11 reported disruptions, which were either resolved during the day or are in the process of being resolved.
( Source : Deccan Chronicle )
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