Key Points
- Technical glitches disrupted services at airlines, banks, and the LSE today.
- The events came after Microsoft reported an outage across its online services which has been resolved.
A vast series of technical failures erupting from the US to Asia have disrupted services and airlines, banks, and the London Stock Exchange, following a Microsoft outage across its online services, Bloomberg reports.
According to official data, the first glitches emerged in the US on July 18 and blamed a failure of Microsoft’s services including Azure and 365.
Frontier Airlines a unit of Frontier Group Holdings Inc. based in Denver, reportedly grounded flights for more than two overs, blaming issues with Microsoft’s online services.
On X, the company stated in the early morning of July 19 that their systems were impacted by a Microsoft outage, which also affected other companies. During that time, the company said that booking, check-ins, access to people’s boarding passes, and some flights were impacted.
Also, the LSE Group which operated the London Stock Exchange said that it was experiencing a global technical issue that was preventing news from being published.
On their official website, LSE said that the technical issues were being investigated.
According to the same Bloomberg reports, in Asia, Japanese users also began reporting glitches with services such as Microsoft 365 in the afternoon.
Global Airlines Experienced Technical Issues
Airlines at Mumbai and Hong Kong airports reported reverting to manual check-in for passengers.
Also, IndiGo, India’s largest airline, reported via X that it experienced issues due to Microsoft’s outage. This morning, they noted in a message that the systems across the network were impacted by an ongoing issue with Microsoft Azure, which resulted in increased wait times at the contact centers and airports.
Passengers could expect slower check-ins and longer queues, according to their post. The team said that they were working closely with Microsoft Azure to resolve the issues swiftly.
According to Danny Lee, Asia Transport Reporter, more airlines and airports globally are faced with various states of disruption. In the US, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and American Airlines issued ground stops, halting flights to all destinations, says the Federal Aviation Administration, as Reuters reports.
In Berlin, Schoenfeld Airport suspended operations earlier, DPA notes. Important Australian airports including Sydney and Melbourne also faced technical issues, according to reports detailed by Bloomberg.
Muted Volumes in Equity Markets
Jan-Patrick Barnert, Senior Reporter at Global Equity Markets, noted that there have been muted volumes amidst the global outages. For instance, for Euro Stoxx 50 Futures, only 44,000 contracts have traded this morning, 50,000 contracts less that the usual at this time of day.
While the stock market was affected, the crypto market remained unfazed during the Microsoft outage, with Bitcoin trading at $64,000 today.
Microsoft Restores Cloud Services
According to the latest reports coming from CNBC, Microsoft said that it restored cloud services following the global outage. The publication cited the company’s statements from this morning.
According to CNBC, Microsoft revealed that it had determined the underlying cause and the majority of services have been recovered. However, according to Microsoft, some customers could still experience issues in the Central US region.
