By Cristina Gallardo
Travel in Europe was significantly disrupted Friday by a major Microsoft service outage that hit a range of global businesses.
KLM Dutch Airlines said it suspended most of its operations, while Ryanair advised passengers to get to the airport three hours ahead of their departure times due to the outage.
"We realize that, especially given the summer vacations, this is extremely inconvenient for our customers. We are working hard to resolve the problem. For now, we are forced to suspend most of the operation," a KLM spokesperson said.
London's Gatwick Airport said it started experiencing issues with some of its IT systems early this morning, affecting some check-in systems, baggage and security. The airport is using a backup process and working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible, it said.
Gatwick Express, the train operator connecting London with the Gatwick Airport, warned that there could be short-notice cancellations in its services because of widespread IT issues.
Flights from Spain are experiencing delays, which affected airports around the country, according to national airport authority AENA.
In a post on social media platform X, AENA said it was working to resolve the issue as soon as possible and trying to operate on manual systems.
Dozens of flights were delayed from Barcelona and Madrid airports early Friday, according to their websites.
Brandenburg airport in Berlin halted operations until 1000 CET, a spokeswoman said, and a notice on the airport's website said a technical issue delayed check-in for passengers.
Michael Susin and Ian Walker in Barcelona contributed to this article.
Write to Cristina Gallardo at cristina.gallardo@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 19, 2024 04:18 ET (08:18 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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