SUVARNABHUMI — On July 20, Dr. Keerati Kitmanawat, President of Airports of Thailand Public Company Limited (AOT) stated that airport check-in systems have returned to normal, no stranded passengers found.
Following the issues with the Departure Control System (DCS) of certain airline groups on the afternoon of July 19, 2024, which prevented all airlines worldwide using this system from checking in passengers and making seat reservations at all airports, he said the system returned to normal operation at 02:00 a.m. on July 20, 2024.
However, at 09:00 a.m., the system experienced another malfunction before resuming normal operations from 11:00 a.m. Currently, passenger queues and check-in times have returned to normal.
Dr. Keerati further explained that the incident affected about 200 flights, but all flights were able to operate. Only some flights were delayed by 1-3 hours, and only one flight was cancelled: the Bangkok-Osaka route on July 20 at 10:00 a.m. This aligns with airlines’ reports that no passengers were stranded, with only some passengers requesting flight changes or refunds, which can be processed according to the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand’s regulations.
He added that AOT has measures in place to handle such situations by preserving passengers’ rights to change flights or receive refunds. They have also ordered increased staff preparedness for the next three days in case of repeated system failures. However, during this extended holiday period, AOT requests passengers to arrive 3 hours in advance to prevent missing their flights.
Previously, Suvarnabhumi Airport made a statement requesting passengers to allow at least 4 hours of travel time to prevent missing their flights. They also stated that the main airlines affected by the DCS issue are Thai Air Asia (FD), Scoot Tiger (TR), and Indigo (6E), which were forced to check in passengers manually.
Airlines across the world reported disruptions to check-in systems and other issues that caused flights to be grounded or delayed on Friday. The Associated Press reported that CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity firm that provides software to scores of companies worldwide, had stated that the problem occurred when it deployed a faulty update to computers running Microsoft Windows, noting that the issue behind the outage was not a security incident or cyberattack.
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