Relief as Foreign Airlines Resume Operations After Global IT Glitch

The widespread global information technology system outage that caused disruptions at airports worldwide, including Nigeria’s Murtala Muhammed International Airport, has been partially restored leading to the resumption of international airlines.

On Friday, flights heading to the United States of America, Europe, and some other international destinations were grounded over the glitches.

Giant airlines in the aviation businesses including Delta Air and United Airlines among others resumed operations after the faulty software update issued by cybersecurity firm, CrowdStrike, affected Windows computers worldwide, leaving businesses, airports, banks, healthcare sector in limbo, leading to immediate suspension of activities.

Globally, at least 5,000 out of 110,000 scheduled commercial flights were cancelled on Friday.

Also, almost 300 flights were cancelled for both the in and out of the U.S. schedules, with nearly 7,000 delayed as a result of the glitches, according to data tracker FlightAware.

The disruptions extended to carriers in Europe, Middle Eastern, and African airlines operating in Nigeria. Air France and KLM experienced significant delays, with flights into Nigeria postponed, while outbound flights also faced delays.

However, delays and cancellations were expected to persist throughout Saturday and possibly on Sunday, as airlines try to fully recover from the impact of the outage that upended their flying schedules and affected thousands of passengers.

In Nigeria, The PUNCH learnt that United Airlines cancelled its Lagos-Washington flight on Friday, while passengers continued to cry foul.

A source at the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria confirmed that many of the passengers lodged in a hotel on their bills while few of them returned to their homes.

Contacted for an update on the development, the Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection at the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, Michael Achimugu, sent our correspondent a schedule of flights which showed that flight arrivals and departures were disrupted due to the same glitches.

This arrival and departure document obtained by The PUNCH showed that Delta Airlines, Airfrance, Royal Dutch Airlines and Virgin Atlantic all arrived and departed the Nigerian’s Murtala Muhammed International Airport although with varying delayed times on Friday and Saturday respectively.

For Friday, the document showed that Delta Airline departed the airport at 2:59 pm after a delay of 2:54minutes, Airfrance arrived at 00:57HRS against its expected time of arrival of 21:40HRS while it departed at 03:45HRS against its expected time of departure of 23:55HRS.

In the same vein, Royal Dutch Airlines arrived at 21:20HRS instead of 20:15HRS and departed at 23:28HRS against its ETD of 22:25HRS.

The Saturday schedule also showed that Delta Airlines arrived in Nigeria at 13:51HRS instead of its ETA of 10:00HRS and departed at 15:49HRS instead of 12:10HRS while Virgin Atlantic also departed at 10:36HRS instead of leaving at 09:00HRS.

But in a conversation with our correspondent, the President of the Association of Foreign Airlines and Representatives in Nigeria, Dr Kingsley Nwokeoma, begged the flying passengers to remain calm as the challenge wasn’t peculiar to Nigeria alone.

He added that operations will soon return to Nigeria as disruption of aviation services begins to subside in some airlines’ parent nations.

He said, “There can be IT glitches and you know that can happen anytime, and the airlines have procedures in tackling this kind of thing and this is not just happening in Nigeria alone, it is global. So what the airlines should be doing is to ensure that their passengers are well informed and comfortable as well as reschedule all the flights when necessary.

“This thing is about network disruption and the places where flights are gradually resuming are developed nations, and Nigeria will soon return to its full aviation operations, we are seriously working on it. You can’t compare Hong Kong to Nigeria, Hong Kong and all, are our parent countries and if things have started returning to normal in those big countries it will flow down to Nigeria. The airlines are working hard and everybody is trying to ensure that things return to normal as early as possible.”

Delta and United Airlines said they were resuming some flights but expected additional delays and cancellations. The airlines also issued travel waivers for impacted passengers.

On its official X handle, Delta Airlines said it is continuing its operational recovery following the global IT glitch. The airline further said that it was already tirelessly working to ensure that affected passengers were well taken care of.

The airline said, “Across the operation, Delta teams in airports, on board flights, on the phones and in messaging are working tirelessly to care for customers as the airline works to put flight crews and aircraft back in position following the disruption.

“More than 600 Delta and Delta Connection flights were cancelled Saturday — mostly in the morning and early afternoon. Additional cancellations are expected as some of Delta’s technology continues to recover from Friday morning’s vendor-caused issue.”

It, however, called on the customers to keep checks with the airlines via its app.

It also says, “Delta is notifying customers about delays and cancellations in their itinerary via the Fly Delta app and text message, and offering re-booking options that can be managed online. Customers are encouraged to delta.com or the Fly Delta app for the latest information about their itinerary.

“A travel waiver, which offers customers the ability to make a one-time change to their itinerary, is still in effect for those with travel booked on Saturday, July 20. The fare difference for customers will be waived when rebooked travel occurs on or before July 25, in the same cabin of service as originally booked. Customers are encouraged to manage changes to their travel via delta.com or the Fly Delta app.”

For the second time in less than 48 hours, the airlines apologised for the disruptions of passengers’ travel plans assuring that cancelling a flight is always the airlines’ last resort.

“We apologize to those customers who have had their travel plans disrupted as a result of this technology issue. Cancelling a flight is always our last resort. That’s why Delta people are working around the clock to get customers where they need to be. Unexpected disruptions like these are difficult and do not reflect the operational reliability and experiences customers have come to know and expect from us.

“We will continue to offer meal vouchers and hotel accommodations for customers whose flights are significantly delayed or cancelled Saturday,” Delta Airlines said.

Speaking with the spokesperson for Ethiopia Airlines in Nigeria, Ikechi Uko, said the aviation company was not affected by the global IT development noting that it has since remained in operation.

He also shared an information flyer stating that “Ethiopian Airlines would like to inform its esteemed customers that we are not currently experiencing any disruptions to our IT systems at our headquarters or any impact on our flight operations due to the global IT system outage. Nonetheless, we are vigilantly monitoring for any potential impacts at all our stations globally. We will continue to monitor developments and update you accordingly.”

However, Hong Kong International Airport said it had resumed normal operations, Chinese state media said on Saturday after the IT outage disrupted its activities on Friday.

Airlines’ passenger check-in systems in Hong Kong, which had been affected by the global outage, have returned to normal, CCTV said in a Weibo post, citing Airport Authority Hong Kong.

The airport said the affected airlines had switched to manual check-in and flight operations had not been affected.