Frustrated Air Travelers Report Massive System Outages Across The World

LONDON Travelers complained of major systems outages affecting at least a dozen airports around the world early Thursday morning.

Frustrated fliers posted about the tech issues, which disrupted several airlines, around 6 a.m. 

Neda Jaafari, spokeswoman for Lufthansa, told HuffPost that the passenger booking system that many airlines used, called Amadeus, briefly went down. She said that the issue was quickly resolved and that it didn’t have a major effect on Lufthansa’s operations.

Southwest Airlines spokesman Chris Mainz confirmed the same issues.

“During the morning, we experienced a network issue that caused disruption to some of our systems,” an Amadeus spokesperson said. “Amadeus technical teams took immediate action to identify the cause of the issue and restore services as quickly as possible. That action is ongoing with services gradually being restored.”

The system was fully recovered as of about 10:30 a.m., Amadeus said.

Amadeus is the most widely-used booking system worldwide, according to the company’s website. 

A passenger waiting to check in for an AirFrance flight at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport said that dozens of people had been waiting without being assisted. The automated system was also down .

Others at Washington, D.C.’s Reagan National Airport, Amsterdam’s Schipol Airport, London’s Gatwick Airport, Johannesburg’s O.R. Tambo International Airport, Singapore’s Changi Airport, Frankfurt Airport, Mauritius’ Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport Airport, Zurich Airport, Baltimore–Washington International Airport, Melbourne Airport, and Spain’s Palma de Mallorca Airport tweeted similar complaints about various airline check-in systems not working.

This article has been updated to include a statement from Amadeus.