KUALA LUMPUR (July 20): The global IT outage has cost airlines millions in lost revenue and caused chaos in people’s lives due to system failures, said Capital A Bhd CEO Tan Sri Tony Fernandes.

Fernandes acknowledged CrowdStrike’s apology, but stressed that airlines are still waiting for an explanation from Microsoft about the incident.

“Tech companies have little empathy. What we went through with Covid-19, they had no sympathy. Now they have problems and they expect us to understand. Well, I’m not going to do that. Airlines need answers and compensation,” he said in a LinkedIn post on Saturday.

CrowdStrike Holdings Inc, an American cybersecurity technology company based in Austin, Texas, provides endpoint security, threat intelligence, and cyberattack response services.

Despite the chaos, Fernandes stressed the importance of learning from the situation and growing from it.

Elaborating on the disruption, he said the situation appears to have stabilised on the second day of the global IT outage, which affected AirAsia’s operations at Terminal 2 of Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA).

“But we are not letting our guard down. We are ready for further disruptions,” he said.

Fernandes said the airline is doing manual work, such as checking in, printing boarding passes and dropping off bags, with more than 100 Allstar volunteers on the ground.

“This reminds me of our early days 23 years ago when everything was done manually. We are proud to have minimized the number of flight cancellations thanks to our flexibility in moving to manual operations and our genuine commitment to serving the people,” he added.

Despite some delays, Fernandes assured that AirAsia is committed to transporting everyone safely to their destinations.

“Huge thanks to our guests who have been patient and appreciative of our efforts during this ordeal,” he said.

AirAsia resumed its online check-in operations at 2pm on Saturday, following the global IT outage that began on Friday afternoon (July 19).

Responding to Fernandes’ post, Muhammad Rafay Ahmed Khan said, “Just dropped my wife and kid at KLIA 2, everything seems normal now. Great service from AirAsia, kudos Tony Fernandes.”

Another user, Kushagra Varshney, praised the team’s crisis management and said, “Great to see your team handling this crisis with empathy and dedication. Also a relevant point raised by Tony Fernandes: When IT system failures cause financial losses and disrupt people’s lives, what solutions do IT companies provide?”

Similarly, Umar Dani Mochlis Moktar noted: “Impressive action by your team. This incident makes us wonder how easily a single system can disrupt the entire world.”

Last Friday, major institutions including airlines, banks, media outlets, and hospitals in several countries were affected by the global IT outage linked to CrowdStrike.

Uploaded by Liza Shireen Koshy