VIA’s operations impacted by worldwide IT outage

Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL), the operator of Maldives’ main airport, Velana International Airport (VIA) states passengers may experience delays during check-ins in light of a major IT outage across the world. 

Major international airports including at India, United States, United Kingdom, Spain, Australia and Singapore had come to a halt, with many airlines grounding flights.  

MACL, via a post on X, warned that passengers may experience delays as airline IT systems have been disrupted by the outage.

They apologized for any inconveniences passengers may face and expressed appreciation for their patience.

Cyber security firm Crowdstrike has confirmed defective software update for its Microsoft Windows hosts as the cause behind the outage.

"The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed," their statement said, assuring it was not a cyberattack.

A Microsoft spokesperson told the BBC that "the majority of services were recovered" hours earlier.

Apart from airports, the IT outage also disrupted the operations of major banks, broadcasting networks, hospitals, and businesses worldwide. 

Australia - which was particularly hard hit – saw many broadcast networks fumbling on air as systems failed. Several supermarkets were also brought to a standstill, with payment systems down.