Microsoft outage disrupts airline operations at Taoyuan airport

Taipei, July 19 (CNA) A global IT outage affecting Microsoft cloud-based software disrupted airline systems at Taoyuan International Airport on Friday.

Airlines including AirAsia X, Tigerair Taiwan, Jetstar Airways, Hong Kong Express Airways, Jeju Air and FlyScoot were affected by the technical issue, according to the airport.

Airline staff resorted to conducting passenger registration and seat allocation procedures manually, after Microsoft cloud-based booking-management system Navitaire was impacted by the outage, airport authorities said.

The Ministry of Digital Affairs (MODA) issued a statement Friday, saying the ministry "inspected the status and operations of critical government information systems," including the household registration and tax systems, as soon as the technical issue was discovered.

The ministry said critical government information systems were not affected and were operating normally, though some personal computers had malfunctioned.

The ministry will "continue to monitor developments" and work with Microsoft and related organizations to "ensure the stability and security of digital infrastructure," MODA said.

The global IT outage was caused by a defect in a software update for Windows systems provided by cybersecurity company Crowdstrike, according to Australian telecommunications firm Telstra.

Major U.S. airlines, including American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines, canceled flights in response to the outage, according to ABC News.