Thousands of passengers were grounded Thursday morning as computer problems hit the check-in systems of airlines around the world. The Telegraph reported that London’s Heathrow and Gatwick, Charles de Gaulle in Paris, Zurich, Melbourne, Johannesburg, Changi in Singapore and Washington DC’s Reagan Airport were among the affected.
Over 100 airports worldwide and the online check-in services of some airlines are reportedly seeing difficulties.
The @Qantas check in system down. Massive queues in Hong Kong. Not sure why they can't get this right pic.twitter.com/lrL5jUzVEN
— Paul (@paulharapin) September 28, 2017
A small number of airlines are experiencing problems across the world & we're working closely with them to solve the issue.
— Heathrow Airport (@HeathrowAirport) September 28, 2017
The problems were traced back to one software vendor, Amadeus, and its Amadeus Altea check-in software. In a statement issued at 2.30PM local time, the company said the problems have been resolved on its end:
“Amadeus can confirm that our systems are recovered and are now functioning normally.
“During the morning, we experienced a network issue that caused disruption to some of our systems. As a result of the incident, customers experienced disruption to certain services.
“Our technical teams took immediate action to identify the cause of the issue and mitigate against the impact on customers. Amadeus regrets any inconvenience caused to customers.”
The knock-on effects of the delays are still being seen at airports around the world, although it appears that check-in software is functioning normally now.
IT problems have been to blame for a number of serious airport delays in the last year. A problem with Delta’s system grounded flights across the world in January, while a problem with the British Airways system caused thousands of cancellations in May. Amadeus didn’t elaborate on what the problem was, but the fact that one software provider could take down the check-in systems of hundreds of airlines shows how vulnerable the international air travel system is to IT problems.
