A faulty update from US cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike crashed Windows PCs around the world on Friday, with computers displaying the dreaded “blue screen of death”. The outage hit global airlines particularly hard, disrupting thousands of flights as staff scrambled to get systems back online. Some airlines, such as US carrier Delta Air Lines, are still struggling.
Tony Fernandes, CEO of Capital A, owner of budget airline AirAsia, says he is “100%” demanding compensation from Microsoft, the developer of the Windows operating system.
“If I delay my flight, you will ask me for a refund, right? Or if I cancel my flight, that means I have to refund you,” Fernandes said. told reporters at an event in Subang, Malaysia.
“The principle is: if we do something wrong, we have to compensate. They did something wrong. We and other airlines have lost a lot,” he said.
Total Financial Losses Due to CrowdStrike Outage could reach that high Insurer Parametrix estimated Wednesday that the cost of the disaster could be as high as $15 billion. For Fortune 500 companies alone, the cost could exceed $5 billion.
Malaysia’s digital minister also weighed in. On Wednesday, Gobind Singh Deo suggested to reporters that five government agencies and nine companies were among those affected in Malaysia, and that he had met with representatives from Microsoft and CrowdStrike to request a full report, according to Reuters.
Services at Asian airports had to be operated manually when the outage occurred on Friday, with passengers facing delays at both Singapore’s Changi Airport and Hong Kong International Airport. The outage affected services in more than 10 airlines in Singapore and at least five in Hong Kong, according to local media.
Airlines are still recovering from Friday’s outage. Delta is still being cancelled hundreds of flights, with More than 6,000 flight cancellations since the outage began. It is the hardest-hit carrier among major U.S. carriers, and is currently under investigation by the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Since the outage, Fernandes has been on a warpath against Microsoft and CrowdStrike. On Sunday, the airline executive complained in a LinkedIn post that “tech companies have little empathy” for what airlines have experienced during the pandemic.
“They now have problems that they hope we all understand. Well, I’m not going to. The airlines need answers and compensation,” he wrote.
