A widespread Microsoft outage has disrupted flights, banks, media outlets, and businesses globally. The outage has persisted for hours, affecting access to Microsoft 365 apps and services. Microsoft has been working to fix the issue, gradually restoring access.
DownDetector, a website tracking user-reported internet outages, recorded disruptions in services at Visa, ADT Security, Amazon, and airlines such as American Airlines and Delta. In Australia, airlines, telecommunications providers, banks, and media broadcasters lost access to their computer systems. Similar issues were reported in the U.K., Europe, and India. New Zealand banks also went offline.
Microsoft 365 posted on X that they are “working on rerouting the impacted traffic to alternate systems to alleviate impact in a more expedient fashion” and observed “a positive trend in service availability.” Users are expected to see gradual relief as mitigation efforts continue. The latest updates indicate ongoing improvements in service availability.
Impacted services due to the outage include PowerBI, Microsoft Fabric, Microsoft Teams, and the Microsoft 365 admin centre. Users may experience services in read-only mode or intermittent access issues.
The global impact of the Microsoft outage is extensive. Airlines, railways, and television stations in the United Kingdom were disrupted. Ryanair, TransPennine Express, Govia Thameslink Railway, and Sky News were affected. Australian airports saw long queues and stranded passengers due to disabled online check-in services. Despite these issues, flights continued to operate.
Airline operations in India were disrupted, affecting thousands of passengers. In Hong Kong, the Airport Authority switched to manual check-in for some airlines. Berlin Airport in Germany experienced check-in delays, suspending flights until 10 a.m.
The BBC reported that over 1,000 flights were cancelled worldwide, with the number expected to rise. In Australia, news outlets like ABC and Sky News faced broadcasting issues, with some anchors going live online from dark offices.
In South Africa, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange reported issues with the FTSE indices not updating. Major insurers and Capitec, the largest bank by customer numbers, also faced outages. It remains unclear if these issues are linked to the Microsoft outage.
The Microsoft outage has highlighted the global reliance on its services. As the tech giant continues to mitigate the issue, affected businesses and individuals hope for a swift resolution.
