INDONESIAN AIRLINES ADVISED TO UPGRADE TECHNOLOGY FOLLOWING MICROSOFT OUTAGE

JAKARTA, July 22 (Bernama-ANTARA) -- Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi urged Indonesian airlines to upgrade their technology to anticipate risks in information technology, such as the recent Microsoft Windows outage, that can affect airline activities.

"Apart from instructing (on) the use of better technologies, we will also push the industry to prepare its backup well," Sumadi stated on the sidelines of the 2024 National Road Safety Week (PNKJ) kick-off here on Sunday (July 21).

The minister emphasised that the system outage, which was historic in scale, should push stakeholders in the national aviation industry, especially passenger airlines, to evaluate their performance.

The minister suggested that airlines prepare contingency plans and utilise better technology to prevent possible future system outages from disrupting their passenger services, reported ANTARA.

"They should have the backup and not depend on a single system," he added.

Meanwhile, Sumadi revealed that low-cost carriers Citilink Indonesia and AirAsia Indonesia were the most affected by the recent Microsoft Windows outage.

The system error, caused by a faulty CrowdStrike file configuration update, severely affected the global air transportation system and caused thousands of flights to be cancelled.

However, the two airlines reported that they had addressed the issue properly and avoided major disruption. The minister remarked that airlines reported no significant operational losses, and normalcy had been restored in their operations.

"There are disruptions, albeit on a manageable scale. Some affected low-cost carriers, particularly Citilink and AirAsia, resorted to manual operation during the error. However, their operations recovered the next day," Sumadi remarked.

-- BERNAMA-ANTARA