Hong Kong authorities said they were “highly concerned” over an IT outage that disrupted businesses around the world on Friday and threw the city’s air services into disarray, creating long lines at the airport and delaying more than a dozen flights.
Deputy Chief Secretary Warner Cheuk Wing-hing was tasked with monitoring developments after disruptions to Microsoft services and applications, as well as problems experienced by Windows devices following a software update from a third-party cybersecurity provider.
A spokesman for the government said its own systems were “operating normally”.
“The deputy secretary has asked government departments to closely keep in view developments under their purview and be prepared to make prompt response, as well as immediate reports where necessary,” he said. “The deputy secretary will also give instructions as necessary.”
The Office of the Government Chief Information Officer had contacted Microsoft to urge the tech company to release solutions to the public as soon as possible and provide support to affected users.
The outage was affecting airlines and airport operators across the world, including those in Germany, Australia, New Zealand and India. The London Stock Exchange was also among those hit.
At Hong Kong’s airport, passengers formed long lines as check-ins slowed to a crawl when airlines were forced to resort to processing fliers manually. More than a dozen flights departing from the city, including ones operated by HK Express, suffered delays.
In a social media post, transport minister Lam Sai-hung noted that Hong Kong’s airport had activated its contingency plan to minimise the impact on operations, while also asking passengers to allow sufficient time for check-in.
The websites of several airlines stopped functioning and Cathay Pacific’s self-service check-in facilities at the airport temporarily became unavailable.
The Airport Authority announced after 3.30pm all air passengers were being processed manually, and just at around 10pm said most airlines had completed checking in affected travellers.
Microsoft said in a social media post it was investigating an issue affecting the ability of users to access various apps and services on its cloud-powered platform.
Apart from HK Express, Cathay Pacific’s low-budget arm, other international airlines also attributed halts to parts of their operations to the outage of e-commerce solution provider Navitaire.
Navitaire’s website showed that its customers included Jetstar Japan, IndiGo, Singapore’s Scoot, America’s Spirit Airlines and Hungary-based Wizz Air.
HK Express said that as its system services provided by Navitaire had yet to be restored, some of its flights scheduled for Saturday were due to be cancelled and urged the affected passengers not to travel to the airport. They should instead rebook their flights or request a refund, it said.
George Kurtz, CEO of cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, revealed on social media that a defect in its software update caused an outage for Windows hosts, although it did not affect those operating on Mac and Linux systems. But he denied it was a cyberattack or a security incident.
Kurtz later said his company was working with customers affected.
“The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed,” he said. “Our team is fully mobilised to ensure the security and stability of CrowdStrike customers.”
The global IT outage also stopped some Hongkongers overseas from returning to the city as scheduled, while some HK Express fliers said they were furious about missing flights and demanded to speak to management.
HK Express offered special ticketing arrangements, including waiving passengers’ rebooking charges and fare differences with an option to apply for a full refund.
But some tourists were not satisfied with the offer.
“We don’t need a refund. We want to go home as soon as possible instead of changing to another time slot,” said Zhao Jianhui, a passenger who hoped to return to Ningbo in the eastern mainland Chinese province of Zhejiang on Friday night.
“The best solution now is that the airline provides accommodation and transportation fees for us.”
According to preliminary data from aviation analytics company Cirium, there were roughly 110,000 global commercial flights scheduled on Friday, with 1,390 cancelled as of 6pm.
A Shanghai-based staff member with a foreign company told the Post her office started to witness computer crashes in the early afternoon and almost everyone was affected. Her laptop remained stuck on a blue screen with the message: “Recovery. It looks like Windows didn’t load correctly.”
The company’s IT support told everyone to shut down their computers and wait for further instructions, advising employees to use mobile apps for instant messaging. Her financial work was delayed, and she said her monthly report would be late.
On the social media platform Xiaohongshu, the mainland’s Instagram-like service, users complained about difficulties with checking into international franchise hotels such as the Sheraton, Marriott and Hyatt.
Additional reporting by Kahon Chan, Harvey Kong, Ng Kang Chung and Wency Chen
