Airports, trains and checkouts: Everything affected by global IT outage

In this article:
Microsoft
Windows computers suddenly shut down after Microsoft outage - Gonzalo Fuentes/REUTERS

Flight cancellations: Are planes grounded?

Air travel across the world has been disrupted. Flights have been delayed and cancelled across the US, Europe and the UK, causing chaos at many international transport hubs.

Frontier Airlines has grounded flights for over two hours and blamed issues with Microsoft’s online services.

In the US, American Airlines, United and Delta have asked the Federal Aviation Administration for a global stop on all flights, according to an alert from the FAA.

Ryanair has told passengers to arrive an hour earlier than normal for flights, and Manchester Airport has said that its ground teams are handling operations manually.

All flights have reportedly been grounded at Berlin Brandenburg Airport. It comes after the airport initially warned that a technical issue would cause delays to check-ins.

United Airlines employees wait in front of a blue error screen in Newark, New Jersey
United Airlines employees wait in front of a blue error screen in Newark, New Jersey - Bing Guan/REUTERS

IndiGo, the low cost Indian airline, has said it is impacted by an ongoing issue with Microsoft Azure. It said customers may struggle to access boarding passes and some flights may be affected too.

Gatwick Airport has said it is relying on backup processes to handle passengers this morning, but has kept its terminals open. “This is a global Microsoft issue affecting some airlines’ check-in systems, baggage and security, including eGates,” it said.

Pictures have been posted of large crowds gathering amid severe delays at Charleroi airport in Brussels.

The Dutch airline KLM has said it will suspend most of its operations, warning issues have made flight handling “impossible”.

Amadeus, a company which manages baggage at Heathrow, now confirms it has been affected.

Pictures have now emerged of airports across Europe using whiteboards and marker pens to update travellers on their flights.

Are trains running today?

Thameslink, Southern Rail and Gatwick Express face “widespread IT issues across our entire network” that have left it unable to access driver diagrams at some locations. It says this will cause potential delays, particularly on Thameslink and Great Northern. There are also reports of ticket machines not working at some stations.

Northern rail company Merseyrail has warned the crisis is affecting its passenger information boards and the ability to print third-party tickets at stations.

Subway services in the US capital have been affected. Operator Metro Forward has said its internal systems are down. Its website was inaccessible at the time of writing.

In London, staff have been drafted in to scan tickets manually at Waterloo.

Tickets bought online are providing a challenge for staff on the UK's rail network
Tickets bought online are providing a challenge for staff on the UK's rail network - Hesther Ng / Story Picture Agency

Bookmakers

Even high-street bookies are not immune to the outage, it seems. Ladbrokes has told customers trying to access its website this morning that it is “experiencing some tech issues”. The website Downdetector, which logs outages, reported a surge in user complaints trying to access the bookie today.

Sports, museums and entertainment

Manchester United has postponed its planned ticket release for today. It said on its Matchday X account that it hoped to launch tickets at midday, as it warned of ongoing website issues. Middlesbrough FC has also said it cannot process card payments.

It is beginning to look like many cultural institutions across the country will struggle with card payments today.  A vast range of museums, visitor centres and cultural centres spanning from Portsmouth’s Historic Dockyard to Glasgow’s Science Centre and Monkey World in Dorset have warned that visitors will have to pay cash.

Those hoping to visit Buckingham Palace or Windsor Castle will also be disappointed, after the Royal Collection Trust halted ticket sales, blaming the global outage.

News organisations

Sky News stopped broadcasting and was displaying a message apologising to viewers this morning. It has since resumed broadcasting.

The Telegraph has been hit by issues with logging into computer systems and accessing the internet.

CBBC went down, with a blue screen telling viewers “Sorry! Something’s gone wrong”. However, the channel’s service has now resumed.

Banks and financial institutions

The London Stock Exchange (LSE) has warned its data feed is currently facing technical issues, meaning a delay to company results and announcements. It said: “RNS news service is currently experiencing a 3rd party global technical issue, preventing news from being published on londonstockexchange.com.”

Prominent banks across Australia have been hit: the Commonwealth Bank has said it is “urgently investigating any impacts to our systems and services” after some customers were unable to make payments.

In New Zealand, the banks ASB and Kiwibank have said their services are down.

Pictures have come indicating that currency exchanges in Hong Kong are now affected.

The Bank of England, however, which yesterday suffered an IT outage of a completely different kind, said it is “monitoring” the situation but advised there is no impact on its own systems.

Beyond banks, insurers including Allianz and Admiral have been affected, the Financial Times reports.

Some savers have been locked out of accounts with major platforms such as Royal London and Abrdn.

Emergency services

The NHS has said it is facing disruption in its EMIS appointment and record system, but insisted it has measures in place to manage the issues such as paper patient records and handwritten prescriptions.

911 outages have been reported in some states across the US, reportedly including Alaska, New York, Arizona, Indiana, Minnesota, New Hampshire and Ohio.

Unconfirmed reports have also been made of outages to Electronic Medical Record (EMR) systems in US hospitals, which are used to store and organise patient data by physicians.

Israeli systems have been hit too: the country’s Ministry of Health has warned that the cyber outage is causing hospital services to malfunction, Haaretz reports. Social media posts indicate some hospitals in Israel have moved to manual systems, while citizens have been warned they may face difficulties reaching emergency services via phone.

Healthcare

GP services across the UK are reporting issues that are causing major disruption with practices. Some have been left with no access to medical appointments, medical records, booked appointments and even prescriptions, according to surgeries’ social media posts.

Some cancer patient appointments have been cancelled because radiology departments have been affected. The Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust was forced to declare a critical incident because the system it uses to deliver radiotherapy treatments has been impacted.

Schools and universities

The education sector has not escaped unscathed. A number of institutions have now told children to stay at home on what would have been their final school day of the year. Some parents have been told to call in if their child is ill, because school IT systems are down. The University of Manchester has said it is looking into IT issues “as a matter of urgency”.

Supermarkets

Even some supermarket self checkouts have been hit by the outage, social media users report, with photos of checkouts at the Australian supermarket Woolworths showing the so-called “Blue Screen of Death” posted on X.

The 'blue screen of death' greeted shoppers at self-service tills in Australia
The 'blue screen of death' greeted shoppers at self-service tills in Australia - The Bearded Angry Gay

UK supermarkets appear to be affected too. It is understood some Morrisons customers have struggled to make contactless payments this morning, while customers have complained that they have been unable to pay in Waitrose stores. Waitrose is currently only taking cash and chip and pin payments. Sainsbury’s said it had not seen any issues with its own systems.

Downdetector is reporting a flood of consumer complaints about Waitrose, Tesco, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s. However, supermarkets visited by Telegraph journalists this morning appeared to be operating as normal.

A number of retailers, including the northern grocer Booths and the Southern chain Jempsons, have told customers they can only accept cash.

Pubs and hospitality

The pub chain JD Wetherspoon has confirmed it is having issues with its app, which customers use to order food and drinks to their tables. The chain has advised that customers pay for their food and drink with cash.

Reports have come in that the coffee chain Gail’s has stopped taking card payments as a result of the disruption.

Gail's Bakery was forced to stop taking card payments
Gail's Bakery was forced to stop taking card payments