appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

isVideo

articlePageQuery

article

articleSchemaContent

content

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

hooksArticlePageFloatingButtonConfigArticle

appConfig

filter

json

liveArticle

Harvey Kong

Tom Shuai

Disgruntled passengers were once again forced to wait in long queues at Hong Kong’s airport on Saturday when carrier AirAsia’s check-in system went down for about 90 minutes, a day after some airlines were affected by a global IT service outage.
Budget airline HK Express also announced in the morning that 20 of its flights remained cancelled, with some passengers stranded overnight complaining of poor contingency arrangements.
The Airport Authority confirmed there was a temporary fault with AirAsia’s check-in system at around 9am, forcing airline staff to manually process passengers.
“The system fully resumed normal operations at about 10.30am,” a spokesman said. “According to our understanding, the cause of the incident was not related to the malfunction of Microsoft systems [on Friday].”
The authority earlier in the day said all systems were back to normal following the worldwide IT outage.
The city’s No 2 official, Eric Chan Kwok-ki, said on Saturday that Deputy Chief Secretary Warner Cheuk Wing-hing had been tasked with monitoring the situation and had already urged Microsoft to restore normal operations.
“[Cheuk] has communicated with Microsoft over the phone and pushed them to restore normal operations as soon as possible. We hope to resume all affected services in Hong Kong [on Saturday],” he said.
“I want to reiterate that the government’s computer systems, including that of the airport, have remained unaffected with only some airlines’ check-in operations being affected … We are highly concerned about this incident and hope it can be restored quickly because this is a global issue.”
George Kurtz, CEO and founder of cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, earlier apologised and said a software bug in one of its updates had caused the outage affecting Microsoft systems.
“We are deeply sorry for the impact caused to customers, to travellers, to anyone affected by this, including our companies,” he said. “The system was sent an update and that update had a software bug in it and caused an issue with the Microsoft operating system.
“We identified this very quickly and remediated the issue.”
Following the fresh IT problems at Hong Kong’s airport on Saturday, AirAsia passengers were left queuing in long queues that stretched across the terminal hall.
“As a passenger, of course, I am feeling frustrated and disappointed, but there is nothing I can do,” said Stella Cho, a 50-year-old AirAsia passenger travelling to Penang with three other family members.

The group was supposed to be at the gate at 10.30am, but was still waiting at the check-in counter at around 10.19am.
“We have already checked in at home, so we were expecting it would not be so chaotic if we were to just drop off our baggage, but it was still chaotic,” the social worker said.
AirAsia did not respond to questions on reasons behind the latest temporary breakdown, but said it had been working around the clock to restore the systems following the global outage and had deployed additional staff.
“Whilst every effort is being directed towards recovery, manual processing remains the most reliable and secure method,” the company said, adding passengers were encouraged to arrive early at the airport amid possible delays due to manual check-in procedures.
Carl Chan, an AirAsia passenger originally set to fly to Bangkok at 10.45am, expressed disappointment and said he had expected services would be back to normal.
“The news and the Airport Authority have said they have returned to normal, but there are some airlines that are not OK, so I am a bit disappointed. I thought everything was OK,” he said, noting he had arrived earlier than usual.
“I arrived three hours before the flight, but the line still was not moving,” the 42-year-old facilities manager added.
Chan said it would have been better if there had been clearer information available, as well as earlier activation of contingency plans by the airline.
Cathay Pacific Airways’ budget carrier, HK Express, said on Saturday its systems had fully resumed operation in the morning, although 20 flights remained cancelled.
Six of Sunday’s flights heading to Kaohsiung and Taichung in Taiwan would fly with increased seating capacity, it said. Affected passengers were encouraged to check rebooking options to secure a spot on one of the services.


Zhao Jianhui, 53, was among those affected by the disruption after his flight to Ningbo in mainland China was shifted from 7.45pm on Friday to 6.25am the next day, forcing him to stay a night at a hotel near the airport.
“There are not any arrangements for us. They treat us like we don’t exist,” he said.
“We want the airline to compensate for our transport fee, dinner fee and accommodation fee, but I guess they can’t make it happen.”
Zhao said he and his 70-year-old mother had to walk more than 30 minutes to get to the airport in the morning. “There is no taxi at 3am,” he said.
He paid HK$1,030 (US$130) for the pair’s hotel stay and another HK$1,075 per person for the flight.
“If there are choices for me, I will never choose HK Express again.”
Fellow passenger Zhu Yuwen, 25, said she slept on a bench outside the check-in counters with her mother and sister on Friday.
“I am tired to death now. There were a lot of people in the airport at night and it was noisy, we couldn’t fall asleep at all,” she said after arriving in Ningbo at around 8.50am.
“We were disappointed that there was an emergency situation but no emergency plan, I will never choose HK Express again. Compensation should be decided based upon how long our flight had been delayed, but at least we need to be compensated with half price off our flight tickets.”
She said the air fares had cost them more than HK$2,000.

The Airport Authority earlier said five carriers were affected by the global outage, including Cebu Pacific, IndiGo and Scoot.
Airlines were forced to manually check in passengers, while the airport implemented crowd control measures and brought in extra staff.
Financial institutions, healthcare providers and government departments across the world were among those gradually resuming operations.
Airport operations in Thailand and Berlin were reported to be back to normal on Saturday.
Aviation services had mostly returned to normal in Australia, one of the first countries to experience problems, aside from delays at Sydney Airport.
Additional reporting by Cannix Yau


Authorities aim to launch revamped Huanggang Port on October 12

China airports climb global-connectivity ranking as international routes rise: OAG report

Hong Kong finance chief urges Cathay to keep fares attractive, add routes

Mainland Chinese joint venture launches new electric taxi in Hong Kong

Hong Kong transport

AirAsia check-in system at Hong Kong airport down for 1½ hours, day after global IT outage

AirAsia passengers queue at Hong Kong airport following problems with the airline’s check-in system. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

AirAsia staff have been forced to take down customer details with pen and paper. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Crowds of passengers at Hong Kong airport. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Hong Kong officials ‘highly concerned’ over IT outage that caused airport chaos

Passengers wait to be checked in at the airport. Photo: Dickson Lee

Airlines staff were forced to process passengers by hand. Photo: Dickson Lee

Passengers wait to be checked in. HK Express offered special ticketing arrangements, including waiving passengers’ rebooking charges and fare differences with an option to apply for a full refund. Photo: Dickson Lee

What is CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity giant behind the global IT outage?

Global operations at various airports, airlines, banks, hospitals and other businesses have been affected by a global tech outage in systems running Microsoft Windows linked to a faulty CrowdStrike software update. Photo: EPA-EFE

Travellers wait to check in at Hamburg Airport in Germany on Friday as a widespread Microsoft outage disrupted flights, banks, media outlets and companies around the world. Photo: dpa via AP

A blank screen is seen in New York’s Times Square on Friday, as companies and institutions around the world were hit by a major computer outage. Photo: EPA-EFE

As it happened: Hong Kong airport says global Microsoft outage hit 5 airlines, officials ‘highly concerned’

Passengers have been checking in manually at the city’s airport. Photo: Dickson Lee

News

Hong Kong

Transport

Airport Authority confirms temporary fault with AirAsia’s passenger check-in system between 9am and 10.30am


Hong Kong International Airport

Sydney

HK Express

AirAsia check-in system at Hong Kong airport down for 1½ hours, day after global IT outage

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}Airport Authority confirms temporary fault with AirAsia’s passenger check-in system between 9am and 10.30am

Airport Authority confirms temporary fault with AirAsia’s passenger check-in system between 9am and 10.30am