Friday chaos at airports around the world due to global computer failure | Economy

Air transport networks and in some cases rail networks around the world are in disarray as computer systems crash. Europe’s biggest budget airline, Ryanair, warns customers of a “global power outage” that could delay their flights. The computer glitch was confirmed to have affected Ena’s systems at dawn, threatening chaos at Spanish airports on Friday. European airports including Berlin, Germany, and Edinburgh, UK, have also issued warnings.

The problem affects billing and travel information networks, with the result that, for example, flight information screens in all airport terminals are not working, sources at the Spanish airport operator have admitted. Shipments are being managed manually this morning, which poses the risk of delays. Companies such as Iberia and Air Europa have joined Aena’s post on their social media to inform about the incident.

This Friday, July 19, heavy traffic is forecast in infrastructures such as Madrid-Barajas, Barcelona-El Prat, Levante airports or the islands. Aena says its teams are working “to resolve this issue as soon as possible,” but the company has not been able to return to normal hours and complaints are starting to pile up on social networks. After 9:00, Aena said it was “creating some systems to deal with unforeseen circumstances,” and by 10:30 it was referring to a “global computer incident that is affecting companies around the world.” Its airports have not stopped operating, “but they are slower in some processes,” the company admits.

The Spanish railway system, Adif assured the public, was operating normally in these early morning hours.

The crisis is also affecting other countries’ transport infrastructure, airlines, banks, payment methods, emergency services and even government administrations. An update to one of the most powerful antivirus programs on the market, used by large corporations, developed by cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike, has caused a widespread failure in Microsoft Windows, as reported by specialized media. It is also reflected on the Downdetector website, dedicated to detecting computer failures and incidents. Microsoft Azure, a cloud computing platform, has confirmed the problems.

Aena was due to update the aforementioned anti-virus shield yesterday morning, and the critical moment at its airports coincides with a critical moment for companies in places as diverse as the United States, the United Kingdom and India.

In the United States, airlines including Delta, United and American Airlines have been paralyzed and grounded due to communication problems, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Miguel JimenezThe outage in Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing system impacted “service management operations and service connectivity or availability,” the computing giant said. Operations in other sectors were also affected.

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