KOCHI: Flight operations at Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram airports were severely affected following the Microsoft cloud services outage that took down computer systems at major establishments across the globe.
At least seven flights were cancelled and 11 others delayed in Kochi while three late evening flights from Thiruvananthapuram were cancelled. A number of flights also got delayed in the state capital.
“The flights cancelled at Kochi airport are 6E 695/HYD (IndiGO, Hyderabad); IX 1132/1130 BLR (Air India Express, Bengaluru); 6 E 435/472 BLR (IndiGO, Bengaluru); 6 E 169/742 HYD (IndiGO, Hyderabad); 6 E 144/6922 BLR (IndiGo, Bengaluru), and 6 E 6682/6681 HYD (IndiGO, Hyderabad),” a spokesperson said. However, the information given on CIAL website late on Friday showed more flights being cancelled, including SriLankan Airlines (UL 168) flight to Colombo (UL 168) and IndiGO flight (6 E 6904) to Chennai.
Three flights to Bengaluru (8.55pm), Hyderabad (10.10pm) and Chennai (10.45pm) were cancelled at the Thiruvananthapuram airport. At the same time, the services at Kannur airport were not affected much, the authorities said.
Carriers like IndiGo and Akasa Air were the worst hit as long queues could be seen before the counters at the airports from Friday noon. The Microsoft Azure issues mainly affected the systems of airlines, leading to longer wait times and slower check-ins at airports. Some of the flyers were seen questioning certain airlines, like IndiGo, ruling out immediate refund.
“Flights are cancelled due to the cascading effect of the worldwide travel system outage, beyond our control. The option to rebook/claim a refund is temporarily unavailable. To check the cancelled flights, visit https://www.goindigo.in/information/flight-cancellations.html. We truly appreciate your patience & support,” the carrier said in a statement posted on X.
“As systems are impacted globally due to ongoing issues with Microsoft Azure, we kindly request you to refrain from making multiple booking attempts during this time. We’re closely working with Microsoft to resolve the issue....’’ IndiGO, which was forced to cancel 192 flights countrywide, tweeted.
Meanwhile, airlines like Air India Express urged passengers to arrive at the airport “sufficiently earlier” and said that “normalcy would be restored soon”.