Patrick Anderson, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Anderson Economic Group, a Michigan research firm specializing in estimating the economic cost of events like strikes and other business disruptions, has pegged Friday’s global internet glitch at $1 billion.
His firm estimates that a recent hack of CDK Global, a software firm that serves US car dealerships, reached that $1 billion cost mark. While that outage lasted much longer, about three weeks, it was restricted to one narrow industry.
“This outage is affecting far more consumers and businesses in a way that ranges from inconvenience to serious disruptions and resulting in out-of-pocket costs they can’t get back easily,”
Anderson added that the costs could be particularly significant for airlines, due to lost revenue from canceled flights and excess labor and fuel costs for the planes that did fly but faced significant delays.
Recall that there was a widespread global information technology system outage on Friday causing disruptions at airports worldwide, including Nigeria’s Murtala Muhammed International Airport, a situation which has been partially restored leading to the resumption of international airlines.
On Friday, flights heading to the United States of America, Europe, and some other international destinations were grounded over the glitches.
Although giant airlines in the aviation businesses including Delta Air and United Airlines among others resumed operations after the faulty software update issued by cybersecurity firm, CrowdStrike, affected Windows computers worldwide, leaving businesses, airports, banks, healthcare sector in limbo, leading to immediate suspension of activities.
Also, almost 300 flights were canceled for both the in and out of the U.S. schedules, with nearly 7,000 delayed as a result of the glitches, according to data tracker FlightAware.
The disruptions extended to carriers in Europe, Middle Eastern, and African airlines operating in Nigeria. Air France and KLM experienced significant delays, with flights into Nigeria postponed, while outbound flights also faced delays.
In Nigeria, it was learned that United Airlines canceled its Lagos-Washington flight on Friday, while passengers continued to cry foul.
According to a source at the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, many passengers lodged in a hotel on their bills while few of the passengers lodged in a hotel on their bills while few of them returned to their homes.
Meanwhile, Michael Achimugu, the director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection at the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, noted that a schedule of flights showed that flight arrivals and departures were disrupted due to the same glitches.
This arrival and departure document showed that Delta Airlines, Airfrance, Royal Dutch Airlines, and Virgin Atlantic all arrived and departed Nigeria’s Murtala Muhammed International Airport although with varying delayed times on Friday and Saturday respectively.
For Friday, the document showed that Delta Airline departed the airport at 2:59 pm after a delay of 2:54minutes, Airfrance arrived at 00:57HRS against its expected time of arrival of 21:40HRS while it departed at 03:45HRS against its expected time of departure of 23:55HRS.
In the same vein, Royal Dutch Airlines arrived at 21:20HRS instead of 20:15HRS and departed at 23:28HRS against its ETD of 22:25HRS.
The Saturday schedule also showed that Delta Airlines arrived in Nigeria at 13:51HRS instead of its ETA of 10:00HRS and departed at 15:49HRS instead of 12:10HRS while Virgin Atlantic departed at 10:36HRS instead of leaving at 09:00HRS.
However, the President of the Association of Foreign Airlines and Representatives in Nigeria, Dr Kingsley Nwokeoma, begged the flying passengers to remain calm as the challenge wasn’t peculiar to Nigeria alone.
He added that operations will soon return to Nigeria as disruption of aviation services begins to subside in some airlines’ parent nations.
He said, “There can be IT glitches and you know that can happen anytime, and the airlines have procedures in tackling this kind of thing and this is not just happening in Nigeria alone, it is global. So what the airlines should be doing is to ensure that their passengers are well informed and comfortable as well as reschedule all the flights when necessary.
“This thing is about network disruption and the places where flights are gradually resuming are developed nations, and Nigeria will soon return to its full aviation operations, we are seriously working on it. You can’t compare Hong Kong to Nigeria, Hong Kong and all, are our parent countries and if things have started returning to normal in those big countries it will flow down to Nigeria. The airlines are working hard and everybody is trying to ensure that things return to normal as early as possible.”
Delta and United Airlines said they were resuming some flights but expected additional delays and cancellations. The airlines also issued travel waivers for impacted passengers.
On its official X handle, Delta Airlines said it is continuing its operational recovery following the global IT glitch. The airline further said it was already tirelessly working to ensure that affected passengers were well cared for.
The airline said, “Across the operation, Delta teams in airports, on board flights, on the phones, and in messaging are working tirelessly to care for customers as the airline works to put flight crews and aircraft back in position following the disruption.
“More than 600 Delta and Delta Connection flights were canceled Saturday — mostly in the morning and early afternoon. Additional cancellations are expected as some of Delta’s technology recovers from Friday morning’s vendor-caused issue.”
