Auckland Airport has pinpointed the problem that led to check-in chaos described as a “Third World disgrace” by one airline boss as air travel moves towards a pre-Christmas peak.
A fault with equipment impacting connections for a major IT provider for an airline has been identified.
The airport said it had worked with external network providers to establish the cause of the fault that created delays for travellers at the international terminal.
“Auckland Airport’s on-precinct fibre network plugs into a communications switch which connects to several external network providers, enabling network services to various businesses operating at Auckland Airport,” said a spokeswoman.
Through a process of elimination, the airport’s technology team was able to isolate and conclude the fault had occurred in the domain of one of the network providers, likely originating from one of their own customers.
“This meant the communications switch stopped working, cutting internet access to all of the customers operating from that device. This impacted a number of businesses operating at Auckland Airport, including a global airline technology provider that supports the international check-in system.”
That provider is believed to be big global aviation system firm SITA which said it has also investigated the problem.
‘’Following an investigation on the matter, we found that the outage was not caused by any of our systems but by a faulty interface, not managed by SITA, which provides connectivity to several entities operating within the airport,” said a SITA spokesman today.
The airport said that with the help of two external network providers, the network connection was disabled.
“We were able to then change to a different internet provider, which brought everything back online,” said the spokeswoman.
“Again, we’d like to sincerely thank customers for their patience this morning as we worked quickly with airlines to get travellers where they needed to be today.”
Airlines were notified by email by a third party at 11pm last night that an issue affecting systems for 14 airlines was out, leading to delays stretching to hours overnight.
Queues stretched out the door of the international terminal.
Airlines were told in the email the Muse (Multi-User System Environment) check-in system was not available. Major carriers directly hit included Qantas, Malaysian Airlines, Air Tahiti Nui, American Airlines, Hawaiian, Delta, Air Canada and Cathay Pacific.
Air New Zealand was not directly hit but passengers did suffer some baggage delays.
The airline boss, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the baggage system was completely jammed due to the number of tags being pushed into the system and the need for more manual work by airline staff.
He likened it to a “Third World disgrace”.
In a statement, Auckland Airport said there were no cable cuts had taken place as initially suggested by a firm based at the airport.
“Reports that a cable cut caused the delays experienced by travellers are incorrect.”
Systems at the airport were restored mid-morning. Domestic travel was not affected.
Board of Airline Representatives executive director Cath O’Brien told the Herald the latest problem came on top of a range of issues with the baggage system recently.
“Today’s IT outage looks like a new issue, but this is also affecting the baggage system, which is still facing challenges following earlier works,” she said.
“As we head into the busiest period of the year, airlines encourage Auckland Airport to continue to do all they can to recover check-in and baggage systems so that travellers can be checked in and begin their journeys without delay.”
One passenger who arrived from Sydney just after midnight said she waited two hours for bags to come through.
“The airport was a mess, with people asking each other where to go even before the baggage wait. There was no communication about why,” she said.
The outage came as summer capacity was pouring back into Auckland Airport, with big North American carriers returning to the city.
Airlines have been sharply critical of the cost of the rebuild at Auckland Airport, through which about 17 million passengers pass each year.
The airport’s underlying profit is up 87% to $276 million as the country’s biggest gateway had international traffic return to 91% of pre-Covid levels during the last financial year.
Grant Bradley has been working at the Herald since 1993. He is the Business Herald’s deputy editor and covers aviation and tourism.