Hong Kong airport restores flight data for on-site screens, day after glitch causes delays


Glitch caused data to be wiped from screens across airport, resulting in ‘a few’ flight delays and passengers scrambling to catch planes. — SCMP

Hong Kong airport restored real-time on-site flight data on Monday morning, a day after “a few” aircraft were delayed and passengers scrambled to reach their planes when a computer glitch wiped arrival and departure information from screens.

The Airport Authority said all the flight information display screens – including those at departures and arrival halls, boarding gates and baggage reclaim halls – were now operating normally.

“The airport website and MyHKG mobile app also are operating normally to provide real-time flight information,” the authority said at 7.20am.

“Passengers are advised to refer to the latest flight information and allow sufficient time to check-in at the airport.”

Sunday’s incident forced staff to hastily write departure times and gate numbers on whiteboards to keep passengers informed, prompting concerns about the airport’s contingency measures.

A Post reporter who visited the airport on Monday observed at 8.30am that flight data displays were all operating normally at the arrival and departure halls, while the whiteboard had been removed.

Some passengers said they had travelled to the airport early just in case any further disruptions happened.

Ivy Pong said she was travelling to Taiwan and had come to the airport more than three hours before her flight due to concerns about Sunday’s incident.

“I am worried that there will be accidents again, so I came earlier,” the traveller, who is in her 20s, said.

Pong described the authority’s emergency response measures as unacceptable and said she was not lucky not to have been caught in the chaos over the weekend.

Zoe Cheung, a teacher leading a group of students on an exchange trip to mainland China’s Hangzhou city, said that she was unfazed by the earlier incident.

“I checked the Airport Authority’s mobile app in the morning and everything was fine,” she said.

Airport staff were earlier forced to resort to putting flight information on white boards after a system glitch affected screens. Photo: Elson Li

Sunny Chan, 35, said he had arrived at the airport before 10am, more than three hours before his Bangkok-bound flight took off, adding he was more concerned about the commute than any potential airport data system glitches.

Other travellers from locations such as Shenzhen, meanwhile, said they had been unaware of Sunday’s disruption.

The authority apologised on Sunday for the inconvenience caused to passengers and said only “a few” flights suffered delays, but admitted fixing the problem had taken longer than expected.

The government has told the authority to investigate the blunder and file a report.

The glitch also came hot on the heels of another blunder last Monday that saw a cargo plane shut down one of the airport’s runways for more than eight hours after bursting a tyre during an emergency landing.

The closure resulted in delays to about 450 flights that day. – South China Morning Post

Follow us on our official WhatsApp channel for breaking news alerts and key updates!
   

Next In Tech News

Delivery Hero shares drop as it flags potential EU antitrust fine
Ocado builds on Aeon partnership with plans for third robotic warehouse
Is AI a major drain on the world’s energy supply?
Japan’s government has finally stopped using floppy disks
In Belgian farmland, ‘Saving Bambi’ one dawn mission at a time
Samsung Electronics workers strike as union voice grows in South Korea
Mid-year tech milestones: How Malaysia is faring so far
The voices of AI are telling us a lot
Cyberbullying issue to be brought to Cabinet on July 12
Taiwan central bank says no timetable for launching digital currency

Others Also Read