Microsoft Windows Service Outage Hits Indian Airports, Forces Manual Check-ins & Delays 42 IndiGo Flights

A global Microsoft Windows service outage disrupted airport check-in systems across India on Wednesday, forcing airlines to fall back on manual boarding and check-in processes and leading to flight delays and cancellations across major hubs, Reuters reported.

The disruption affected multiple carriers and left passengers contending with long queues and uncertainty as airport teams attempted to restore automated services and resume routine operations.

Flights Affected

IndiGo, SpiceJet, Akasa Air and Air India Express were among the airlines impacted by the outage. IndiGo confirmed that it had cancelled 42 flights at Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport as slowed operations and workflow interruptions forced some services to be called off. Airlines notified customers that alternative flights or refunds would be offered where applicable.

The disruption was especially visible at Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, where videos and eyewitness reports showed large crowds gathered around airline help desks as passengers pressed staff for updates amid delayed or diverted departures. Airport officials in Delhi and Bengaluru also warned of operational challenges and advised travellers to verify flight status before heading to terminals.

Air India later stated that the third-party system disruption had been fully resolved and that check-in was functioning normally across airports, adding that flight schedules had returned to standard operations. Carriers and airport authorities continued coordinating efforts to reinstate automated processing and clear accumulated backlogs.

Impact of Outage

Passengers at several airports received notices attributing the disruption to a “major service outage” in Microsoft Windows, forcing a switch to paper-based workflows in order to maintain passenger movement. The sudden fallback to manual procedures slowed processing at check-in counters and boarding gates, contributing to congestion and confusion across terminals.

Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) issued an advisory on X warning domestic passengers of possible delays as on-ground teams coordinated with stakeholders to manage traffic and mitigate disruptions. In the early hours of the incident, neither Microsoft nor several affected airlines provided detailed technical explanations regarding the underlying cause of the outage.

Previous Outages

The incident mirrors earlier widescale Microsoft-linked disruptions that have affected aviation and other critical services, most notably the July 2024 cloud service failure that disabled check-in, brokerage and enterprise systems globally, forcing organisations to revert to manual operations.

Airlines advised passengers to monitor official carrier channels for real-time flight information and to allow additional time for manual processing where necessary. Airport and airline staff said stranded and connecting passengers were being prioritised while teams worked to restore normal automated operations as quickly as possible.