Story perspectives

Microsoft Azure Outage Disrupts Major Airlines and Retailers

10/30/2025

Summary

Story summary

The global Microsoft Azure outage disrupted Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines websites and key systems.
Alaska Airlines confirmed the issue on social media and advised passengers to obtain boarding passes at airports.
The outage began around 6 a.m. Hawaii time, with Microsoft attributing it to a configuration change.
Kroger and Starbucks were affected, and Alaska Airlines enters its third major information technology (IT) failure in three months.

History

Historical Context

On July 19, 2024, a faulty update from CrowdStrike caused the largest IT outage in history, impacting approximately 8.5 million Microsoft Windows systems globally. This disruption affected numerous sectors, including airlines and government services, leading to over 7,000 flight cancellations and an estimated financial loss of at least $10 billion. The incident raised concerns about the reliance on centralized cloud services.

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Story summary

The global Microsoft Azure outage disrupted Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines websites and key systems.
Alaska Airlines confirmed the issue on social media and advised passengers to obtain boarding passes at airports.
The outage began around 6 a.m. Hawaii time, with Microsoft attributing it to a configuration change.
Kroger and Starbucks were affected, and Alaska Airlines enters its third major information technology (IT) failure in three months.

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