As scheduled: Travellers looking at the flight information display system at KLIA2 as the situation goes back to normal after the Microsoft CrowdStrike global outage. — IZZRAFIQ ALIAS/The Star
SEPANG: After weathering a major tech outage on Friday, operations at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport Terminal 2 (KLIA2) have returned to normal with affected IT systems almost fully restored.
A check at the location yesterday found that it was back to business as usual at the terminal and there appeared to be no delays or passenger congestion at check-in counters, a contrast to the chaotic scenes there days ago.
ALSO READ: Agency warns of phishing threats after global disruption
Ground staff manning the counters and managing passengers were relieved with the restoration of ticketing systems and going about their duties with ease.
An AirAsia employee, who preferred not to be named, said the worst was over and check-in ticketing systems were almost fixed except that it was “running a little slower than usual”.
“The system updates are ongoing amid some buffering that is slowing down the system,” he said.
Several passengers who were scheduled to board their flights said they did not face any delays and checked in smoothly.
India-bound Jass Anwar, 34, said he had missed his flight to Amritsar on Friday following the system disruption and finally secured a seat to the destination yesterday.
“My flight was to be at 6.30pm (on Friday) but was delayed twice until I gave up past midnight when I could not get a seat.
ALSO READ: Enhance cyber laws to meet today’s demands, says expert
“With very little money in hand, I thought of spending the next two nights at the sidewalk of the airport, but fortunately, a friend who lives nearby invited me over,” he said.
Most passengers interviewed said they were relieved they did not have to go through the ordeal of those on Friday.
The global glitch occurred after cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike sent out a defective update to users of Microsoft’s Windows operating system.
Bernama reported Tan Sri Tony Fernandes, the chief executive officer of Capital A Bhd, which owns AirAsia, as saying that the tech outage has caused airlines to lose millions in revenue and created chaos due to system failures.
Though he acknowledged CrowdStrike’s apology, he said that airlines were still waiting for an explanation from Microsoft.
“Tech companies have little empathy. What we went through with Covid-19, they had no sympathy.
“Now they have issues and expect us all to understand. Well, I’m not going to.
“Airlines need answers and compensation,” he posted on LinkedIn.
