Cebu Pacific, AirAsia restore systems

MANILA, Philippines — Systems have been restored and no stranded passengers remain at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3 following a global IT systems outage that affected airlines and banks since July 19, the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) said yesterday.

Cebu Pacific Air (CEB) said they have fully restored their system.

Cebu Pacific corporate communications director Carmina Romero said CEB’s technology provider Navitaire has completed restoring all its services and its underlying servers to “full capacity.”

“All systems are now operational and we plan to operate our normal flight schedules as we advise passengers with confirmed bookings to continue monitoring the status of their flights,” Romero said.

“We are grateful to our IT and airport staff who worked tirelessly to resolve the situation and assist the affected passengers at the NAIA Terminal 3,” she added.

AirAsia Philippines head of communications and public affairs and first officer Steve Dailisan said that as of Saturday, all their systems are back online.

“We ask for patience among our guests as we recover from multiple delays and cancellations as a result of the global IT outage since Friday that is beyond our control,” he said.

“As an airline that is guest-obsessed, the AirAsia team continues to work tirelessly to minimize disruptions and ensure our passengers stay well informed and adequately taken care of,” he added.

On July 19, a global IT systems outage crippled the flight operations of local and some foreign airlines, leaving thousands of departing passengers stranded at NAIA.

The MIAA announced the cancellation of 45 domestic and international flights due to the system outage.

Some 12,500 passengers of Cebu Pacific and around 13,000 AirAsia passengers were affected, as well as six foreign airlines operating at NAIA.

In Paris, planes were gradually taking off again Saturday after global airlines, banks and media were thrown into turmoil by one of the biggest IT crashes in recent years, caused by an update to an antivirus program.

Passenger crowds had swelled at airports on Friday as dozens of flights were canceled after an update to a program operating on