Lokmat News Network
Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:
The disruption in Microsoft's technology has had a global impact, and it has also significantly affected air travel in the city. Many industrialists, entrepreneurs, business fraternity, and lawyers faced distress due to the disruption of their planned schedules. The most significant impact was on IndiGo Airlines' customers, as flights to Mumbai on Friday evening and Saturday morning were cancelled, causing considerable inconvenience to many.
On Friday morning, a malfunction occurred in Microsoft's servers, causing a major shock worldwide. IT companies, banks, stock markets, and airline services were most affected. The sudden appearance of a blue screen on computers and laptops led to a halt in transactions across many countries. This had a direct effect on the city's air services as well. There was a large crowd of passengers at the local airport to board flights to Delhi, Hyderabad, and Ahmedabad. The airport operations, which are usually punctual, came to a standstill, creating chaos.
Most affected flights
According to the airport administration, IndiGo's flight to Ahmedabad was unaffected, but flights to Delhi and Hyderabad faced a delay of one hour. Air India's Delhi flight was also on time.
Maximum distress for IndiGo passengers
In India, IndiGo Airlines and their passengers experienced the highest impact due to the Microsoft technical glitch. Today’s evening flight and Saturday morning’s Mumbai flight of IndiGo were cancelled. Besides, passengers waiting to board IndiGo flights to Delhi and Hyderabad had to wait over an hour at the airport. Consequently, all subsequent plans were disrupted, leading to significant distress. Other airlines faced comparatively lesser impact. The airport administration was continuously trying to contact IndiGo's management, but there was no response.
40 years back, manual boarding passes
Due to the server outage, the crucial boarding pass process for airline services was disrupted. As a result, all work and most procedures at the airport were handled manually, without computers. The process of issuing boarding passes for flights had to be done manually, causing considerable confusion among passengers.
Tourists cancelled their visits
According to President of the Aurangabad Tourism Development Foundation (ATDF) Jaswant Singh, “Foreign tourists who were in the city for tourism had to endure distress due to this disruption. With the uncertainty of flight services, four tourists had to travel to Mumbai by car. Some American tourists, who had planned to arrive on Saturday, cancelled their visits, resulting in a significant impact on tourism.”