Computer glitch hits global airports

London : An airport check-in system used throughout the world went down earlier on Thursday - affecting major airports like Gatwick, Heathrow, Washington DC and Paris Charles De Gaulle.

Panicked passengers across the globe took to Twitter to say that computer systems were hit at numerous airlines.
UK anti-hacking body the National Cyber Security Centre is investigating whether the incident was caused by hackers. It wrote: "The NCSC is aware of reports that an incident has affected airport check-in services.”

“We are engaged with the relevant authorities to better understand the situation. Based on current information we understand that passengers are still able to check-in at all UK airports."

A spokesperson for Lufthansa said the Altea Amadeus booking system - a product used by many airlines - was affected.
And Gatwick Airport said a few airlines that operate there were affected but the outage lasted only a few minutes.
One passenger wrote: "If your entire system is down at REAGAN airport in DC, does that mean the planes aren’t leaving on time?"

Althea Campbell added that all systems are down at OR Tambo International in Gauteng, South Africa.And @heykvb wrote: "Looks like @lufthansa’s computer system is down. Hope I can still get home today."It has also been reported that the entire check-in system at Singapore's Changi Airport, one of the largest transportation hubs in Southeast Asia, was affected by the glitch.

Airlines believed to be affected include Qatar, Lufthansa, Air France and Southwest Airlines.A spokesman for Spanish tech firm Amadeus said: "Amadeus confirms that during the morning, we experienced a network issue that caused disruption to some of our systems.

"As a result of the incident, customers experienced disruption to certain services."Amadeus technical teams took immediate action to identify the cause of the issue and restore services as quickly as possible. That action is ongoing with services gradually being restored.