Travel companies are among millions of Microsoft users hit by a global outage of some of its communications services.
Microsoft 365 Services, including Teams, Outlook and Microsoft’s artificial intelligence software Copilot, have been affected by ‘connectivity problems’ since early Thursday evening.
The tech giant said the global outage was not caused by a cyber-security incident; instead, a large number of servers became ‘unexpectedly unavailable’, which pushed extra traffic onto the remaining servers and strained them.
Microsoft said it is ‘seeing early signs of stabilisation’ but service capacity ‘has not yet returned to normal levels’.
Hays Travel, currently hosting more than 1,000 delegates at its overseas conference in Turkey, confirmed it was one of the thousands of businesses impacted.
It updated its website early this morning to advise customers to call to book or make amendments, rather than emailing.
“All our branches use Outlook, I don’t think we’d be unique,” said Chief Operating Officer Jonathon Woodall-Johnston. “This is a global issue and that’s not within our control.”
Jonathon said the biggest short-term impact would be customers unable to access travel documents sent by email. “We will resort to making them available on the app, just so they’re there already,” he added.
In a message posted on its website, TUI said bookings are not affected and email confirmations are being sent as normal, but it warned there could be a delay in receiving booking confirmations, especially for those using Microsoft email services.
Advantage confirmed the Microsoft disruption was affecting its email communications and suggested members call if they need to get in touch.
“If you need urgent support, particularly with a critical business issue, please call the Membership team on 020 7324 3930,” CEO Julia Lo Bue-Said wrote in a post to members on social media.
Advantage said its intranet remains available, as well as its closed social media channels, and promised to post regular updates ‘as they become available’.
Jet2 put a positive spin on the outage, saying it had seen a spike in traffic on its website since the start of the outage. “With emails down, we’ve definitely seen a rush of people visiting our website to look at flights and holidays,” said a spokesperson.
“It might be something of a Black Friday for email traffic, but it’s a sunshine Friday for customers who are using the extra downtime to look at their next getaway with us.
“There’s even better news for them as they browse this Friday, as we have our own Black Friday offer giving them £100 off person when booking via an independent travel agent partner.”
Several travel firms took to social media to urge customers to call instead of emailing during the outage.
In a post on Travel Gossip, Typically Holidays Managing Director Daniele Broccoli said: “Please use that wonderful old fashioned invention called the telephone and give us a ring on 01733 315522.
“You’ll get a real person, a proper conversation and, as always, a personal touch. Our emails might be down, but we’re still Typically on the ball.”
Holiday Best Head of Trade Nicky Bird was among those who turned to social media to urge the trade to call instead of emailing today. She posted: “Our Call Centre team are very much OPEN and ready to help you get your customers’ holidays booked! Agency support is available on 0808 196 7189 she said, adding: “While the emails are taking a little break, let’s keep those holiday bookings coming!”
Operations at the UK’s major airports appear to be running normally. A spokesperson at Manchester Airport confirmed the airport’s operations had not been affected by the outage.
