Check-in systems of Indigo, Air India and other airlines hit; airport message 'puts' it on Microsoft outage; what the message says

Flight operations of major airlines, including Indigo, Air India and others were severely disrupted on Wednesday (December 3) morning after check-in systems unexpectedly failed at multiple airports, including major hubs. This forced airlines to switch to slow manual procedures. The system outage affected airport check-in platforms simultaneously at various locations, leading to immediate flight delays, news agency PTI reported.

An announcement made to passengers at Varanasi airport blamed the outage on Microsoft, saying, “Microsoft Windows reports major service outages globally. IT services/ check in systems at airports are impacted." All the travelers have been told that manual check-in and boarding processes were being implemented while systems remained unavailable.


When the Times of India tech team checked the status page of Microsoft services, the group did not find any problems, with a message reading, “All products are operational.”

Airport outage: Which airlines are affected and official response

A number of domestic carriers, including IndiGo, SpiceJet, Akasa Air, and Air India Express, are among the airlines reportedly affected by the system failure. In a statement, Indigo said that its teams are working to stabilise operations at the earliest.

“We have had several unavoidable flight delays and some cancellations in the past few days due to various reasons… Our teams are working diligently to ensure that operations normalise as soon as possible,” IndiGo said.

Meanwhile, Delhi Airport acknowledged the “operational challenges” in a passenger advisory on X (formerly Twitter).

“Some domestic airlines are currently experiencing operational challenges, which may lead to delays or schedule changes. Our on-ground teams are diligently working with all stakeholders to ensure a seamless and efficient passenger experience,” it said in a post at 7:40 am.

“Passengers are advised to contact their respective airlines for the latest flight updates,” the passenger advisory added.

The scale of the disruption and the expected time for system restoration remain unclear. Earlier this year, a widespread Microsoft 365 outage, reportedly caused by a faulty update, caused significant disruptions at multiple global locations.