At least 50 Cathay Pacific flights delayed by computer system breakdown at Hong Kong airport, leaving hundreds stranded in departure hall
- Check-in services at aisles primarily serving city’s flagship carrier Cathay affected
- Glitch leaves hundreds trapped at departure hall
The Airport Authority, which operates the facility, apologised for the service disruption, which was rectified by 9.15am. Flight delays ranged from a few minutes to an hour, according to the authority’s website.
The authority said it found glitches in its computer system during regular testing and maintenance in the early hours of Thursday, which subsequently affected services in the southern departure hall and check-in procedures between aisles A and E.
“We will learn a lesson and review how we can do better for passengers,” said Steven Yiu Siu-chung, the authority’s airport operations executive director.
He said the authority had told the affected airlines and directed travellers to the northern departure hall at around 6am.
Yiu explained that following the last flight at 2.30am, the authority had shut down a computer system that supported airline check-in services for a maintenance drill and smoothly switched over to another one.
But the system signalled it was unstable upon completion of the exercise at around 5am, he said. The authority then shut down the system and rebooted it. It was not until about 7.15am that the authority discovered the problem and fixed it two hours later.