The global IT outage grounding flights worldwide highlights a critical issue in aviation: a lack of robust contingency planning. Many airlines reverted to pen-and-paper processes, overwhelming staff and causing delays. Instead of outdated plans, airlines must invest in resilient digital systems to handle disruptions smoothly, minimising impacts on schedules, crews, staff, partners and customers.
The risks of manual fallback procedures
Manual fallback procedures have been the traditional approach in the aviation industry for decades whenever systems fail. These processes include handwritten boarding passes, bag tags, manual APIS collection, and manifest creation. While they provide a basic level of functionality, they are fraught with inefficiencies and errors. Today, despite having a choice of backup systems, many carriers and ground handlers still revert to manual procedures because there is no other option in their Business Continuity Plan.
Impact on staff
Manual processes significantly increase staff workload and stress during system outages. There is very little training on paper processes, and it takes far longer to produce handwritten documents. According to the Uptime Institute’s report, 85% of IT outages result in flight delays or cancellations, and 14% grounding planes for hours. The snowball effect resulted in chaos, making it difficult for staff to maintain accuracy and consistency.
Customer frustration
The increased transaction times of manual processes result in longer wait times and a higher risk of mistakes. As passengers experience delays, customer satisfaction plummets, leading to negative reviews and risks of loss of future business.
Consequences of relying on outdated contingency plans
Operational issues
When an IT outage occurs, switching to manual fallback actions significantly slows down and even stops operations. For example, during Crowdstrike’s software glitch that affected numerous airlines and airports worldwide, thousands of flights were delayed or cancelled, causing dramatic disruptions and frustration among passengers (CNN). The cumulative effect of this inefficiency hampers an airline's ability to recover swiftly from even momentary disruption.
Security and safety risks
Relying on manual processes increases the risk of passenger and baggage handling errors, posing safety risks. Accurate APIS data collection is critical for ensuring the correct passengers and bags are loaded onto the plane. Any lapse due to manual entry could lead to consequences, including delays and security risks.
Financial loss
The economic impact of outages is staggering. Airlines face increased costs due to delays, cancellations, and compensation claims from customers. The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) estimated that the annual cost of flight delays, including direct costs to airlines and passengers as well as indirect costs, amounts to billions of dollars. Delayed aircraft alone cost airlines approximately $100.80 on average per minute. Such financial consequences highlight the urgent need for robust solutions to mitigate these costs. Ground handlers also open themselves up to fines, dependent on the penalty clauses of their Service Level Agreements.
The case for resilient digital systems
Operational continuity
Backup IT systems maintain accuracy and reduce the burden on airline staff if primary systems fail. Disaster Recovery Systems like Ink DRS replace cumbersome paper processes. The continuity of issuing boarding passes, IATA 740 compliant baggage tags, and APIS data capture by passport scans are just a few examples of how a backup system can improve operations when an IT glitch happens.
Speed recovery
Digital systems provide faster passenger check-in, bag acceptance, and boarding. For instance, Ink DRS can reduce average transaction times to less than 40 seconds. This helps to quickly shorten check-in queues and streamline the overall passenger flow when the primary check-in system goes down.
Once check-in and boarding failures disrupt flight movements, highly optimised crew scheduling is affected. This risks escalating into the cancellation of large portions of the flying programme to reset and recover.
Building true IT resilience in aviation
To build IT resilience, airlines should invest in modernising IT infrastructure and introducing backup solutions for every mission-critical system. It’s like buying an insurance for your car. It’s always safer to have it than suffer substantial loss afterwards. Training staff to efficiently use these systems during disruptions is crucial. Regular system testing and contingency planning can further ensure these systems function optimally during outages.
A backup for passenger handling software offers long-term benefits, including improved on-time performance, reduced staff burden, and effectively managed passenger flow. Airlines can maintain schedule integrity for aircraft and crew, minimising disruption costs and the need for additional agents.