Microsoft Corp resolved a cloud services outage that grounded planes and disrupted flight operations in the US Thursday night.
Denver-based Frontier Airlines, a unit of Frontier Group Holdings Inc., grounded flights for over two hours and attributed the cause to issues with Microsoft’s online services. The airline lifted a nationwide pause on departures and started the process of resuming flights from 11 p.m. New York time. Microsoft took until 1 a.m. to resolve the problem, having assigned multiple teams to deal with it, according to its service status page.
The outage also affected reservations and bookings for another discount carrier, Allegiant Air, which operates around 130 aircraft and was working on resolving issues into the night. Leisure carrier Sun Country Airlines Holdings Inc., with a fleet of almost 50 aircraft, similarly reported a “global outage,” without specifying its vendor.
Microsoft’s status pages showed its Azure cloud and Microsoft 365 services had problems for several hours. The Azure issues were localized in the central US region, the software company wrote.
The Allied Pilots Association, the union for American Airlines pilots, said that its website was taken offline by the Microsoft disruption. Frontier Airlines earlier reported a systems issue caused by Microsoft. This impacted the carrier’s booking and check-in systems, as well as boarding pass access for passengers, causing a knock-on effect on flights. Frontier operates around 150 aircraft, according to Cirium.
