Booking system failure causes global airline delays
Airlines all over the world were forced to delay flights on Thursday due to a "network issue" experienced by global flight booking system Altea.
Amadeus IT Group
€57.42
18:16 19/04/24
IBEX 35
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18:45 19/04/24
Altea, operated by the Madrid-based firm Amadeus, crashed at about 1200 BST on Thursday, causing problems for major airlines such as British Airways, Lufthansa, Cathay Pacific and Qantas.
Officials at Changi International Airport in Singapore were required to manually issue boarding passes as the technical issue delayed check-ins.
#ADVISORY: ... Manual boarding passes have to be issued. We appreciate your patience in this matter. Thank you.
— Changi Airport (@ChangiAirport) September 28, 2017
"Amadeus confirms that, during the morning, we experienced a network issue that caused disruption to some of our systems," a statement released by the Spanish firm read, noting that technical teams had taken immediate action to find the root of the issue and that services were "gradually being restored".
Amadeus did not comment on exactly how much disruption the system failures had caused, but Dublin Airport said its system crashed for around 12 minutes, while Manchester airport - the UK's third busiest - experienced a 15-minute long blackout.
At 1440 BST, Amadeus released another statement, apologising for delays caused by the shortage, and advising that all issues had since been rectified.
"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," the statement read.
As of 1520 BST, Amadeus shares had dropped just 0.95% to €54.23 each.