Airline resumes operational normalcy today upon full restoration of its Departure Control Systems, with ongoing service recovery for impacted guests

SEPANG, 22 July 2024 - AirAsia has connected more than 500,000 guests via 3,000 flights to their destinations since the global IT outage on Friday disrupted its Departure Control Systems (DCS) which triggered flight delays due to manual processing for two days. As of today, the airline has resumed normal operations, having recovered all its systems impacted by the outage as it continues to run service recovery for guests impacted over the weekend.

Given that manual processing involves meticulous regulatory and immigration compliance procedures to prioritise airline safety, security and border requirements, many guests experienced long queues as they had to be verified individually. With the volume of flights and passengers during the weekend, this contributed to flight delays. However, AirAsia successfully operated over 99 per cent of its flights during this time.

Group CEO of AirAsia Aviation Group, Bo Lingam said: “We are grateful to have been able to connect over half a million guests across our 130 destination network when the world was reeling from the impact of the global IT outage. Thanks to the presence of a robust Business Continuity Plan and the timely decision to switch to a standalone manual mode, guests were able to continue on their journeys safely. However this meant navigating the delays of meticulous manual processing. As an airline, our Business Continuity Plan is focused on supporting continuity in any scenario, as long as there is compliance with laid down safety and security measures. We had the systems, people and processes to be able to switch to manual with agility, and a robust ground plan to support our guests.”

Over the course of the three days, the airline reinforced its operational bandwidth across all verticals in multiple hubs to meet the surge in demand and ensure that guests reached their destinations. In addition to the full force of its ground staff, the airline also swiftly mobilised hundreds of Allstars volunteers to support the situation, whilst working with airport authorities.

“Most importantly, we are humbled by the trust and cooperation from our guests who supported our standalone processes. We thank them for their patience, resilience and understanding during this global disruption. Manoeuvring this unprecedented incident also required concerted effort from all parties.  We record our appreciation to the Ministry of Transport of Malaysia, Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM), Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB), Immigration Department of Malaysia, Royal Malaysian Customs Department and all relevant ministries as well as agencies for their support and assistance.” 

Bo commended the Allstar spirit over the weekend from ground staff, ICT teams, security personnel and hundreds of volunteers and teams who worked around the clock to keep things running. “Thanks to our AirAsia Allstars across the Group, we are now back to normal systems-wise. Once our service recovery is completed, we are looking forward to climbing back to pre-outage On-Time Performance of above 80%.”

Guests travelling over the next few days are still advised to monitor the status of their flights by checking their registered email and mobile phones for flight updates or at airasia.com/flightstatus. Stay tuned for updates at @flyairasia.