PIA operations largely unaffected amid global cyber outage: official

Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) operations largely remained unaffected as a global cyber outage forced to...
Updated 19 Jul, 2024

Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) operations largely remained unaffected as a global cyber outage forced to ground several flights around the world.

“As soon as the internet was affected, the PIA switched to an alternative system of air operations. Meanwhile, one flight at Lahore was slightly delayed, but all other operations are fully normal,” PIA spokesperson Abdullah H. Khan told Business Recorder.

A software update wreaked havoc on computer systems globally on Friday, grounding flights, forcing some broadcasters off air and hitting services from banking to healthcare.

Major US airlines ordered ground stops citing communications issues, while other carriers, media companies, banks and telecoms firms around the world also reported system outages were disrupting their operations.

American Airlines, Delta Airlines, United Airlines, and Allegiant Air grounded flights less than an hour after Microsoft said it resolved its cloud services outage that impacted several low-cost carriers.

Khan said PIA’s air operations were fully restored and operational.

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In Australia, media, banks and telecoms companies suffered outages, which the government said appears to be linked to an issue at global cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike.

Crowdsourced website Downdetector showed outages at several banks and telecoms companies.

Meanwhile, the operator of Dubai International Airport, one of the world’s busiest airports and hub of Emirates airline, said the airport was operating normally again after being affected by the outage.

Dubai Airports said in a statement the outage had impacted some airlines operating from Terminal 1 and 2 but that the check-in process had been switched to an alternative system, which allowed normal processes to swiftly resume.

Flydubai, which operates out of Terminal 2, said that its operations had not been impacted.

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