KUALA LUMPUR – The global IT outage has caused airlines to lose millions in revenue and has created chaos in people’s lives due to a system failure, said Capital A Bhd chief executive officer (CEO) Tan Sri Tony Fernandes.
Fernandes acknowledged CrowdStrike’s apology but emphasised that airlines are still waiting for an explanation from Microsoft about the incident.
“Tech companies have little empathy. What we went through with Covid-19, they had no sympathy. Now they have issues and expect us all to understand. Well, I’m not going to. Airlines need answers and compensation,” he said in a LinkedIn post today.
CrowdStrike Holdings Inc, an American cybersecurity technology company based in Austin, Texas, provides endpoint protection, threat intelligence and cyberattack response services.
Despite the chaos, Fernandes highlighted the importance of learning and growing from the situation.
Explaining further on the disruption, he said the situation seems to have stabilised on its second day, affecting AirAsia’s operations at klia2.
“But we are not letting our guard down. We stand ready for any further disruption,” he said.
Fernandes said the airline has been managing operations manually, including check-ins, printing boarding passes and baggage drop-offs, with over 100 Allstar volunteers assisting on the ground.
“This reminds me of our early days 23 years ago when everything was done manually. We are proud that we have minimised flight cancellations due to our agility in switching to manual operations and our sincere commitment to serve the people,” he added.
Despite some delays, Fernandes assured that AirAsia is determined to transport everyone safely to their destinations.
“Huge thanks to our guests who have been patient and appreciative of our efforts throughout this ordeal,” he said.
AirAsia resumed its online check-in operations at 2pm today, following the global IT glitch that began yesterday afternoon.
Earlier on Friday, major institutions, including airlines, banks, media channels and hospitals in several countries, were reportedly affected by the global IT outage linked to CrowdStrike. – July 20, 2024