Microsoft Azure Outage Disrupts Services for Alaska and Hawaiian Airlines

A significant outage of Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform on March 27, 2024, has disrupted operations for both Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines. The airlines confirmed that various essential services are hosted on Azure, leading to widespread accessibility issues across their systems.

In an official statement shared on X, Alaska Airlines acknowledged the impact of the outage. “Due to a global outage impacting the Microsoft Azure platform where several Alaska and Hawaiian Airlines services are hosted, we are currently experiencing a disruption to key systems, including our websites,” the airline stated. This outage has rendered both the Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines websites and mobile apps inaccessible, forcing passengers to seek assistance from airport staff for boarding passes.

The timing of the outage poses additional challenges for Alaska Airlines, which had recently experienced a separate IT failure that forced it to ground flights. Customers are currently facing significant delays and inconveniences as they are unable to check in online.

Other services dependent on Azure, such as Office 365 and Xbox Live, have also reported interruptions, according to a report from AP News. The outage is attributed to issues within Azure’s global content delivery network service, known as Azure Front Door. Microsoft indicated that a configuration change inadvertently triggered the incident, resulting in widespread latency, timeouts, and errors across multiple services.

Restoration Efforts Underway

Alaska Airlines is actively working to restore services and has stated that it is collaborating with its technology partners to expedite the process. The airline has advised travelers to allow extra time for check-in and at airport counters, suggesting that the effects of this disruption could linger as systems are brought back online.

Microsoft has implemented restrictions on changes to the Azure Front Door configuration and is in the process of rolling back to a previous state while monitoring for any recurrence of the issue. However, the company has not provided a definitive timeline for the complete restoration of services.

Implications for the Aviation Sector

The impact of this outage on the aviation sector is significant, particularly given the reliance on online systems for check-in, boarding-pass issuance, baggage tracking, and flight crew logistics. Any interruptions to these services can lead to considerable delays, passenger frustration, and reputational damage for airlines.

As the situation continues to develop, both Alaska Airlines and Microsoft are working diligently to mitigate the effects of this outage. This incident serves as a reminder of the vital role cloud services play in ensuring seamless operations for critical industries such as aviation.