Hyderabad's Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) faced significant disruptions on Friday evening, with at least 36 flights cancelled due to a global outage in Microsoft’s cloud services caused by a software update glitch.
All affected flights belonged to IndiGo airlines, with 19 scheduled for departure. Destinations affected included Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Tirupati, Visakhapatnam, Cochin, Coimbatore, Thiruvananthapuram, Jaipur, Raipur, Bhubaneswar, among others.
RGIA issued an advisory acknowledging the IT outage and its impact on airline services, urging passengers to check directly with the airlines for flight updates and information. IndiGo set up "war rooms" at major airports, including Hyderabad, to manage operations amidst the disruption, which affected booking, check-in procedures, and access to boarding passes nationwide.
Passengers faced long queues and delays at RGIA, seeking information on flight rescheduling and delays. Some travelers, like Rishi Lalla heading to Mumbai, expressed frustration over lack of information and limited service counters at the airport.
IndiGo reverted to issuing handwritten boarding passes due to the system outage, a temporary measure that drew attention on social media as passengers shared their experiences of the disruption.
IT professionals also felt the impact, unable to access applications connected to Microsoft services. The airline and technical teams continued efforts to resolve the issue as systems gradually recovered.
Overall, the incident highlighted the widespread repercussions of IT disruptions on airline operations and passenger travel plans, emphasizing the critical reliance on digital infrastructure in modern air travel management.