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Air India Operations Affected Globally As Software Shuts Down For Six Hours

Air India passengers were left stranded at several airports across the world as check-in software stops functioning.

ANI
ANI

Hundreds of Air India passengers were left stranded at several airports across the world as its check-in software stopped functioning for around six hours, the airline said Saturday.

According to airline sources, the software, which is of Atlanta-based SITA company, was not functioning approximately from 3 a.m. to 9 a.m. Saturday. Consequently, boarding passes could not be issued at major airports across the world and various flights were delayed.

The system has been restored. It has begun functioning. We regret the inconvenience that passengers had to face.
Ashwani Lohani, Chairman And MD, Air India

"We are trying to regularise all the flights for the day. But there would be some delay of flights today. I am expecting a delay of around two hours. Because in morning, the whole system got disturbed," he added.

The airline said a total of 155 flights will be delayed for an average duration of two hours till 8.30 p.m.

Lohani said that Air India uses a passenger services system, which looks after check-in, baggage and reservation, was taken for maintenance today morning.

"After that, there were some technical glitches, because of which, the system was not functional. There were some major problems at big airports such as Delhi," he added.

SITA regretted the inconvenience caused and said it had experienced a complex system issue during server maintenance early morning which resulted in operational disruption to flights.

"We have now fully restored services at all airports where Air India were affected. Our priority remains, as always, to ensure a stable system where customers can conduct business efficiently and effectively, and we are undertaking a full investigation to understand the root cause and prevent a recurrence," it said in a statement to PTI.

Many passengers vented their ire on social media as the airline could not issue them the boarding passes on Saturday morning.

The airline's spokesperson had said at around 8 a.m., "SITA server is down. Due to which flight operation is affected. Our technical teams are on work and soon system may be recovered."

A similar incident took place on June 23 last year when a technical glitch in the airline's check-in software delayed 25 of its flights across India.