Local budget air carriers restore services after CrowdStrike outage

Low-cost airlines in Korea affected by a massive global software outage restored their online ticketing systems and fully resumed operations.

A monitor at Incheon International Airport shows flights delayed on Sunday. While Korean low-cost airlines affected by a massive global software outage had completely restored services as of Saturday, international flights from some foreign carriers continued to experience delays and cancelations through Sunday. [NEWS1]

Low-cost airlines in Korea affected by a massive global software outage restored their online ticketing systems and fully resumed operations.

Jeju Air, Eastar Jet and Air Premia had completed the restoration of their booking and check-in systems as of Saturday morning, 12 hours after the disruption, which occurred at around 3:30 p.m. on Friday, according to Incheon International Airport and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transportation on Saturday.

The outage affected the three airlines as they were using the Navitaire system for booking and ticket check-in services, which operates on Microsoft's cloud service system, Azure.

No delays in flights were reported from the three low-cost carriers directly related to the Friday outage since the restoration.

According to the Land Ministry, 92 flights from the three airlines were delayed due to the incident, though there were no cancellations. Among these, 31 flights from Incheon International Airport were affected.

The worldwide disruption, caused mainly by a faulty software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, impacted 10 domestic companies in Korea, including budget airlines and game operators, confirmed the Ministry of Science and ICT.

Major communication service providers in Korea, including telecom carriers and data center operators, did not report any disruptions.

Game companies using Microsoft's cloud system also resumed operations after emergency inspections on Friday.

Pearl Abyss, developer of Black Desert Online, said in a notice on its website that its server was “unstable due to a sudden problem” and that the “defect in the software program used for [the game] was a global issue.” The emergency inspection was completed by 5:20 p.m. on Friday.

Gravity, the developer of online titles Ragnarok Online and Ragnarok Origin, notified users at around 15:30 p.m. on Friday that it was aware of the disruption and would restore service as quickly as it could. Service resumed later that day.

BY SHIN HA-NEE [shin.hanee@joongang.co.kr]