A global Microsoft outage has disrupted businesses, government agencies and airline services across several countries, with India also reporting aviation-related disruptions. SpiceJet cancelled three flights departing from Delhi and delayed two others on Friday morning, while IndiGo and Akasa Air flagged problems with their email support services. Air India, however, said its flight operations and communication channels remained unaffected.
The disruption, which began on Thursday, has affected Microsoft's Outlook, Teams, Copilot and other Microsoft 365 services, leaving millions of users struggling to access emails and workplace applications. The outage has also affected financial services, government institutions and artificial intelligence platforms that rely on Microsoft's infrastructure.
SpiceJet cancels flights, IndiGo and Akasa flag email disruptions
SpiceJet cancelled three flights departing from Delhi on Friday morning owing to the Microsoft-related technical glitches. These included services from Delhi to Pune, Delhi to Leh and Delhi to Mumbai. Two other SpiceJet flights, operating from Delhi to Darbhanga and Delhi to Mumbai, were delayed.
IndiGo said its email support services had been affected by the global Microsoft disruption and that it might not be able to receive emails sent by customers. Passengers requiring urgent assistance have been advised to contact its AI-powered chatbot, 6E Skai, through the airline's website or mobile application. The airline said all its other customer support channels remained available.
Akasa Air also cautioned passengers that its email support services were experiencing delays and that it might not be able to receive their emails. The airline advised customers requiring immediate assistance to contact its 24-hour Akasa Care Centre at 9606 112131 or reach out through its social media channels.
Air India, meanwhile, said it was closely monitoring the situation but confirmed that its flight operations remained unaffected. The airline added that its communication channels were functioning normally.
To ensure that passenger emails continued to reach it without interruption, Air India temporarily rerouted its email traffic. It said customer emails were being answered within its standard 24-hour timeframe and that its voice, AI, social media and customer notification services were functioning as expected.
Delhi Airport has also issued an advisory asking passengers to check their flight status before leaving for the airport. Airlines and airports have urged travellers to keep track of flight-related information and updates through official channels.
Financial services and businesses face communication problems
The Microsoft outage has also disrupted operations across India's financial services sector, with employees reporting difficulties accessing research reports and conducting client calls.
People working in equity markets told the BBC that they were unable to access daily research reports ahead of morning meetings, which are important for investment and trading decisions.
A senior executive at an Indian brokerage said the company had alternative arrangements for email communication, but Microsoft Teams calls, particularly those involving major clients, had become difficult.
The disruption has extended to financial professionals overseas. Rita Elkazzi, UBS Group's execution-sales head for Australia and New Zealand, told Bloomberg that she had switched to telephone calls and alternative communication channels after Outlook stopped working.
The outage has highlighted the dependence of businesses on Microsoft's workplace applications for routine communication, research and client interactions.
Government agencies across countries report disruptions
Several government agencies and public institutions have also reported problems with their email systems and IT infrastructure.
In Australia, the country's intelligence and federal police agencies confirmed email-related disruptions, although officials indicated that the impact was limited. Mike Burgess, head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, said the problem was largely related to email systems.
Japan's government also reported disruption to its shared IT platform. However, Digital Minister Toshiharu Furukawa said government departments had alternative communication arrangements, including telephone calls, chat applications and text messages, allowing essential operations to continue.
In Singapore, authorities confirmed that some government systems, including email services, had been affected. The Government Technology Agency said emergency services remained fully operational and could be reached through the usual numbers, 995 and 999. The country's Singpass digital identity service was also unaffected. Authorities advised citizens to check the websites and social media accounts of relevant government agencies for updates.
The Philippines Supreme Court also cautioned that responses to emails and other transactions could be delayed because of the disruption.
OpenAI and Anthropic report problems
The Microsoft outage has also affected artificial intelligence companies that depend on the technology giant's infrastructure.
OpenAI said it was investigating an issue involving its connections to Microsoft's services, which had caused some of its tools to malfunction or not work as expected. Anthropic also identified problems affecting its connections to Microsoft 365.
The disruption has raised concerns about the dependence of multiple technology companies on shared cloud and workplace infrastructure, with problems at one provider having the potential to affect several other services.
Cybersecurity expert Nicky Choo of Mimecast said the incident underlined why businesses should not rely entirely on a single technology provider. He advised organisations to maintain alternative platforms and contingency plans to ensure essential operations can continue during major technical disruptions.
What caused the Microsoft outage?
Microsoft's services, including Outlook, Teams, Copilot and other Microsoft 365 applications, began experiencing widespread connectivity problems on Thursday.
Users reported difficulties accessing email accounts, sending and receiving messages, loading inboxes and using workplace applications. The disruption also affected Exchange Online, the underlying service that powers Outlook email.
In its initial updates, Microsoft said it was aware of users experiencing problems accessing Exchange Online mailboxes through multiple connection methods in the Americas. The company subsequently acknowledged that parts of its infrastructure were experiencing elevated loads across multiple regions, contributing to connectivity errors.
Microsoft later identified the unexpected unavailability of several servers and failed automated health checks as factors behind the disruption. With some servers becoming unavailable, the remaining infrastructure was forced to handle additional traffic, creating further pressure on the system.
The company began restarting affected servers and redistributing connection traffic across its wider global infrastructure to balance the load.
However, its initial recovery measures did not produce the expected results. Microsoft said some servers that had been restarted became unresponsive again when traffic was restored, prompting engineers to explore alternative ways to improve capacity and stabilise services.
In an update posted on X, Microsoft's Microsoft 365 Status account said: "We're aggressively pursuing all pathways to reduce impact."
The company also said it was testing fixes and monitoring the performance of affected infrastructure. In its subsequent updates, Microsoft reported only limited progress, with recovery efforts not producing a sustained restoration across all affected regions.
Outage reports spread across 74 countries
The scale of the disruption was reflected in reports recorded by Downdetector, an outage-tracking platform. Reports of Outlook problems peaked at nearly 140,000 on Thursday evening, while users in at least 74 countries and territories reported difficulties accessing Microsoft's services.
The outage affected Outlook, Teams, Copilot and wider Microsoft 365 applications, with disruptions continuing into Friday.
Although Microsoft has been working to restore its services, it has not provided a definitive timeline for a complete resolution. Its engineers continue to monitor server performance, redistribute traffic and test alternative recovery measures as businesses and users await the full restoration of affected platforms.