Global IT outage causes disruption at Swiss airports

A worldwide issue affecting Microsoft IT systems had an impact at Swiss airports on Friday, notably in Zurich, where landings were suspended mid-morning. Delays and cancellations were also seen in Geneva and Basel. For its part, Swiss International Airlines was not directly affected by the glitch caused by a system update by IT security firm Crowdstrike, but problems at partner companies had impacted operations, it told the Keystone-SDA news agency. By midday, the airline had cancelled two return flights to Berlin, where air traffic had been temporarily severely restricted. Swiss air traffic control service provider Skyguide meanwhile reduced the capacity of transit traffic over Switzerland by 30% on Friday morning. It also reduced approaches to Zurich by the same amount, and at one point the airport stopped all landings, before gradually building back up to a normal rhythm in early afternoon. All in all, around 100 flights to and from Zurich were cancelled on Friday, the airport said.