Day two of IT crisis: What services are still out across Australia

Many people are still struggling after a global IT outage left airlines, banks and businesses scrambling.

“Knock on impacts” could continue through airports after a massive global IT outage left airlines, banks and businesses in the dark.

A faulty software update sent computers across the country into shutdown, with flights, supermarkets, and transport systems still impacted.

Airports across Australia are operational, however it’s understood flights — including from Jetstar — have been cancelled in the chaos.

It’s also understood supermarkets remain impacted by the outage, with some checkouts Woolworths and Coles unavailable on Saturday morning.

About 3pm on Friday computers across the country began shutting down with workers reporting issues at multiple businesses.

The issue comes from a “blue screen error” which is a result of a Crowdstrike outage, with servers and devices getting stuck in “boot loops”.

The global IT outage caused widespread chaos. (Photo by Stefano RELLANDINI / AFP)

A statement from Crowdstrike revealed the issue was caused by “a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts” and that a fix had been deployed.

The IT issue has affected multiple countries including New Zealand, Japan, India, the US and the United Kingdom.

Multiple businesses have been affected including media organisations such as News Corp’s global operations, the ABC, SBS, Channel 7, Channel 9, and Network 10.

But it has also hit EFTPOS services, airlines, banks and supermarkets, throwing the entire nation into chaos.

CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said the company is “working on a technical update and root cause analysis” that will be shared.

“All of CrowdStrike continues to work closely with impacted customers and partners to ensure that all systems are restored,” Mr Kurtz said in a statement to X on Saturday morning.

“As this incident is resolved, you have my commitment to provide full transparency on how this occurred and the steps we’re taking to prevent anything like this happening again.”

It appears many businesses are recovering from the effects of the outage on Saturday morning, however there may be “knock on impacts”, particularly with airlines.

FLIGHTS

A Sydney Airport spokesperson said there may be “knock on impacts” to individual airlines as a result of Friday’s outage.

“Airport systems are online and operations are normal, however there are some knock-on impacts to individual airlines,” a spokesperson said.

“Anyone travelling today should check with their airline regarding the status of their flight.”

Melbourne Airport also confirmed that they are operational, however it’s understood United cancelled their San Francisco service.

Many airlines experienced issues. (Photo by Jenny Evans/Getty Images)

Jetstar were also the most affected by the outage, which is likely where knock on cancellations will be on Saturday.

It’s understood Jetstar are having issues with baggage, with customers still able to check in their bags, but the process taking longer than normal.

The Jetstar communication system used to communicate with customers was reportedly affected in the outage yesterday, leaving the airline unable to contact customers.

A Jetstar Australia statement confirmed the airline has begun to stabilise, with flights expected to operate as scheduled on Saturday.

“Please proceed to the Airport as usual. There may be a small number of flights impacted due to operational reasons. If your flight is impacted, we will communicate directly to you using the contact details on your booking,” a statement on the Jetstar Australia website said.

Virgin Australia also has stable operations on Saturday morning, though it’s understood the incident has resulted in some cancellations.

“We thank guests who were disrupted by this incident for their patience and understanding and will work with them to ensure they get to their destination as quickly as possible,” a spokesperson said.

Guests are encouraged to visit the Virgin Australia website prior to travel, while it’s understood disrupted guests who are away from home are being supported with accommodation arrangements.

SUPERMARKETS

Supermarkets appear to be operational after reports on Friday point-of-sales systems were impacted.

A Coles spokesperson confirmed all supermarkets across Australia were open and trading on Saturday, though some impacts of the outage may continue.

“Some registers may be temporarily unavailable while we fully recover. We are putting on additional team members to assist customers with their shopping, and we thank everyone for their patience,” the spokesperson said.

Coles supermarket service machines were also not operating due to global outage. Picture: X

“Many Liquorland, Vintage Cellars and First Choice Liquor stores will also be trading. All our remaining liquor stores will re-open as soon as systems are restored.”

A Woolworths spokesperson also said some checkouts continue to be affected on Saturday.

“All stores are open and trading as normal for cash and cards. Saturdays are a busy shopping day and we have plenty of stock on hand,” the spokesperson said.

“Some checkouts continue to be affected by the global outage so we thank customers in advance for their patience and treating our team with respect.

“Following some disruption to a small number of orders last night, our online system is operating as normal with our team expected to pick and deliver thousands of orders over the weekend.”

The spokesperson also thanked the team members who worked overnight to ensure stores could open Saturday morning.

Some people took to X on Friday to report Coles’ self-serve EFTPOS machines weren’t working.

Another user took to X to say it was “mayhem at Woolworths” when the outages started.

Photos from supermarkets show the self-serve check-outs with the same blue screen affecting Windows computers nationwide, with workers manually checking-out shoppers.

BANKS

A Commonwealth Bank spokesperson confirmed their services, including NetBank, the

CommBank app, CommBiz, merchant payments and ATMs are still available.

Westpac and National Australia Bank have also confirmed there are no impacts to customer-facing operations.

EMERGENCY SERVICES

It’s understood emergency services remain operational, with triple-0 calls unaffected.

It’s also understood NSW Fire Services are receiving automatic fire alarms and are responding to those.

It comes after Victoria Emergency yesterday reported fire alarms weren’t calling firefighters automatically, urging people to call triple-0 instead.

TRANSPORT

A Service NSW spokesperson confirmed some systems were still experiencing issues on Saturday morning.

“Service NSW centres and phone lines are open after the worldwide third-party IT outage impacting transactions in Service Centres and Contacts Centres yesterday afternoon,” the spokesperson said.

“The majority of services have been restored, however, there are still some systems experiencing an outage.

“Teams are prioritising the restoration of these remaining systems and Service NSW apologises to customers for any inconvenience.

“The majority of digital transactions have not been impacted and people are encouraged to complete transactions via the Service NSW website where possible.”

There are reportedly no ongoing issues to Victorian transport systems.

Originally published as Day two of IT crisis: What services are still out across Australia