A major global technical outage that led to computer crashes has caused chaos for airlines and airports across Australia.
The outage of Microsoft cloud services on Friday afternoon caused computer outages around the world, at major banks, companies, newsrooms and television networks.
All major airports have reported outages related to the computers that check in passengers, but flights are still departing and arriving.
“We have activated our contingency plans and deployed additional staff to our terminals,” a statement from Sydney Airport said.
‘If you are traveling today, please make sure you arrive at the airport in plenty of time and check with your airline about the status of your flight.’
Australia’s three largest airlines – Qantas, Jetstar and Virgin – have also been hit by the disruptions.
A Qantas passenger said he did not know when his flight would depart.
“Qantas is telling passengers to Google their flight to find out when it departs and which gate as everything is down,” the passenger wrote on X.
A global technical outage caused chaos in aviation and public transport on Friday afternoon (stock image)
A Qantas spokesperson confirmed the airline is experiencing system issues as a result of the outage.
The spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia they are working with their providers to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.
Another X user reported that Jetstar’s computer systems were also down at Sydney Airport, with the airline announcing that they were ‘unable to check in or board passengers’.
A spokesperson for Virgin
Virgin Australia is aware of a large-scale IT outage affecting multiple airlines and other businesses, which is impacting our operations. We are working to resolve this issue as quickly as possible. We appreciate all travellers’ patience as we work to resolve this issue and will provide an update as soon as more information becomes available.
The outage has serious implications for airlines in the United States. Microsoft announced around 6 p.m. ET on Thursday that the outage originated there, Reuters reports.
A passenger on US airline Delta said he was not allowed to board the plane despite “the crew and the people being ready”.
Another Delta passenger said they were “on a crowded plane going nowhere.”
More to come.