UK journey chaos fears as trains, Ryanair and Sky News hit by Microsoft outage

Microsoft has suffered a worldwide outage. Impacted firms in the UK have issued warnings sparking fears of travel chaos following alerts from Ryanair among others.

Viewers of Sky News waking up this morning will have noticed immediately the TV channel was disconnected. Worryingly the London Stock Exchange has also been impacted, as has Gatwick Airport and a Championship football club.

One huge company affected by “widespread IT issues” is Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) which just so happens to be the biggest train company in the UK.

READ MORE:Global Microsoft outage as tech systems down, hospitals disabled and planes grounded

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If that name means nothing to you, it’s likely the railways under its umbrella do. Passengers for Southern, Thameslink, Gatwick Express and Great Northern should all be wary of troubled journeys.

GTR The message stated: “We are currently experiencing widespread IT issues across our entire network.

“Our IT teams are actively investigating to determine the root cause of the problem. We are unable to access driver diagrams at certain locations, leading to potential short-notice cancellations, particularly on the Thameslink and Great Northern networks.

“Additionally, other key systems, including our real-time customer information platforms, are also affected. We will provide additional updates when we can. In the meantime, please regularly check your journey before you travel.”

GTR carries more passengers and has more trains and staff than any other operator in Britain.

Ryanair has warned of “potential disruptions across the network” due to a global third party system outage. On the airline’s website, it posted: “Potential disruptions across the network (Fri 19 July) due to a global 3rd party system outage.

“Affected passengers will be notified and any passengers travelling across the network on Fri 19 July should check their Ryanair app for the latest updates on their flight.

“We advise passengers to arrive at the airport 3 hours in advance of their flight to avoid any disruptions.

“We regret any inconvenience caused to passengers by this 3rd party IT issue, which is outside of Ryanair’s control and affects all airlines operating across the network.”

London Gatwick airport has said “passengers may experience some delays” due to the global outage.

On X, formerly Twitter, the airport posted: “We are affected by the global Microsoft issues, so passengers may experience some delays while checking in and passing through security.

“Passengers should still arrive for their normal check-in time. We apologise for any inconvenience and are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.”

Blackburn Rovers football club said it had also been affected by the widespread IT outage.

The Championship side posted on X: “Due to a global third-party system outage, some online services, including our ticketing platform, are experiencing disruption today.

“This is completely out of the Club’s control and is a network-wide issue across the world, which we are monitoring closely.”

GP surgeries and health centres around the country have issued statements explaining how they’ve been affected.

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