Travel plans for millions of holidaymakers – and long-planned operations – were thrown into chaos across Europe by Friday’s IT outage.
Planes were unable to land or depart from Berlin airport for hours, train bookings were halted in Denmark and Germany’s leading IT security agency predicted that “we cannot reckon with a quick fix for this”.
Effectively cashless economies such as Sweden were badly hit by the software crash, with major regional retailers such as the Åhlens department store chain unable to process electronic payments.
Similarly, the southern German supermarket chain Tegut closed 300 branches for a time on Friday because of its dysfunctional till system.
It was a mixed picture at European airports. Check-in facilities collapsed in several cities, with operations temporarily suspended at Berlin-Brandenburg airport and at Schiphol in the Netherlands. Flight delays were reported in Prague, Brussels and by Aena, manager of 46 airports in Spain.
[ Q&A: What caused the global IT chaos and how long will it take to fix?Opens in new window ]
Similar to many other operators, Sweden’s SAS reported issues with its booking system and that “though fully operational, we expect delays”.
German airline Eurowings cancelled all domestic German flights and flights to and from the UK leaving before 3pm. A spokesman said the decision was taken to relieve the company’s struggling IT system. Dutch airline KLM also reported widespread delays and cancellations.
Copenhagen Airport reported problems related to check-in and resorted to manual check-in of all passengers.
Copenhagen’s fire service, Hovedstadens Beredskab, warned of problems receiving alarms sent automatically by building smoke detectors and urged people to report fires by phone. Several media organisations across the Continent reported IT issues, including Danish publisher Berlingske Media.
Across northern Europe, leading transport and insurance companies warned their customers of difficulties. Two northern German clinics, in Lübeck and Kiel, cancelled planned surgeries because of the IT outage, but insisted patient care and emergency services had not been disrupted.
“We have received 17 alarms from operators of critical infrastructure and 20 reports from 20 very large corporations with similar restrictions,” said Claudia Plattner, head of Germany’s federal office for IT security.
Mercedes reported problems in its factories near Stuttgart, with full production capacity not possible on Friday. The Mercedes Formula One team confirmed it had experienced IT problems, but had mastered them by the afternoon. In Bavaria, BMW said IT problems and a production slowdown had been addressed by Friday afternoon.
Most digital infrastructure across the continent was not hit by the outage, including government IT systems, police and transport companies.
Many companies around Europe activated precautionary plans: one of Sweden’s largest mines evacuated its workers shortly after lunchtime on Friday as a safety measure.
In a rare moment of good news, Germany’s delay-plagued rail operator Deutsche Bahn announced on Friday that its IT systems were fully functional.
- Sign up for Business push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone
- Join The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date
- Our Inside Business podcast is published weekly – Find the latest episode here
