Several online services provided by the UAE Government experienced disruptions due to a global tech outage that affected major institutions worldwide. Dubai International Airport (DXB) also reported temporary operational impacts this morning.
The UAE's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Mofa) advised the public on Friday to refrain from conducting transactions on their online platforms as their electronic systems were compromised by the "global technical glitch". Authentication services were among the affected, according to Mofa.
Flight operations at Dubai International Airport (DXB) have quickly resumed after a system outage disrupted the check-in process for some airlines in Terminals 1 and 2, confirmed a DXB spokesperson to Khaleej Times. "DXB is now operating normally following a global system outage that affected the check-in process for some airlines. The affected airlines swiftly transitioned to an alternate system, enabling the resumption of normal check-in operations," the spokesperson added.
In a separate statement to Khaleej Times, Etihad Airways reported that flights "are operating as normal on Friday (19 July) following the global IT issue affecting organizations worldwide." However, the spokesperson for the Abu Dhabi-based carrier noted that "there may be some limited delays to services across its network due to the global disruption."
Dubai-based flydubai confirmed that the global network outage did not affect their operations. "The third-party IT issue has not impacted our operations. We continue to monitor closely and are in contact with the supplier," said a flydubai spokesperson.
Airports in Singapore, Bangkok, Hong Kong, and India are among those affected, with long lines observed at check-in counters. Major US air carriers including Delta, United, and American Airlines have grounded all flights, according to the US Federal Aviation Administration.
The outage reportedly originated from a faulty update pushed by US-based cybersecurity technology firm Crowdstrike, causing PCs and servers running their software to crash and be unable to recover. More details are forthcoming.
