System outage causes flight delays for AirAsia passengers at Changi Airport

SINGAPORE — Hundreds of AirAsia passengers at Changi Airport were affected by a system outage on Monday (June 18) morning, resulting in long queues forming at the check-in counters.

The outage affected 10 AirAsia flights, its spokesman said. The departure flight schedule on Changi Airport's website showed 15-minute to one-hour delays from Singapore to various destinations such as Bali, Phuket, Penang and Kuala Lumpur.

Pictures posted on social media showed "system outage/down" signs displayed at AirAsia check-in counters at Changi Airport Terminal 4, while the automated boarding gates displayed an "out of service" error message.

An AirAsia passenger, Ms Gemma Flowerdew, said she found out that her flight had been abruptly rescheduled just 15 minutes before departure.

"There were people ahead of us who were unable to check-in at the (automated) kiosk and were asked to join the other queue which went back several counters," said the 30-year-old, who was travelling from Singapore to Thailand.

An AirAsia spokesman said its check-in systems at Changi Airport Terminal 4 were affected for around one-and-a-half hours, from 9.41am to 11.15am.

"During that time, we were able to continue checking-in our guests manually. Our systems are now back up and running and we have resumed automated check-in of our guests," an AirAsia spokesperson said.

She was unable to say how many passengers or flights were affected.

"We are currently investigating the cause of the outage, and we apologise for any inconvenience caused to our guests."

TODAY understands that the outage was caused by an internet connectivity issue.

Several other businesses also complained on Twitter that they were hit by a Singtel internet outage on Monday.

A user who goes by the handle Romain Meraud tweeted that Singtel was down since 9.58am, and that "multiple customers" have reported that their internet is down.

Ms Faridah Wu, an assistant manager for instrumentation company Omega Scientific Pte Ltd, said that her colleagues experienced internet connectivity issues after 8am.

Ms Wu, 29, said: "There was no internet until 10.30am, when the internet started working."

A Singtel spokesperson said some of its business customers had difficulties accessing the internet at around 9.30am, but the issue was resolved by 10.55am, with all affected services restored.

However, Singtel did not answer TODAY’s queries on the number of customers affected by the outage.