Microsoft Azure outage: some airports affected by cloud ‘crash’

A large-scale failure in the Microsoft Azure cloud system caused chaos in Europe — airport, bank, and major service websites temporarily stopped working. Find out how the Microsoft failure affected the operation of vital services

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On Wednesday, 29 October 2025, Microsoft reported a major outage in its Microsoft Azure cloud platform, which caused a chain reaction — from malfunctions in banks and gaming services to disruptions on airport and voting service websites. This was reported by the BBC and other Western media outlets.

What is known about the Microsoft Azure outage?

The outage began on the afternoon of 29 October and spread rapidly. Users began complaining that they were unable to log into Outlook, connect to Teams, or open corporate websites. It later emerged that the problem was related to an ‘unintended configuration change’ within Microsoft Azure, a system that powers thousands of internet services around the world. This error caused disruptions in the Azure Front Door content delivery network, preventing a significant number of websites from loading correctly.

On the Microsoft status page, engineers acknowledged that the problem affected infrastructure in several regions simultaneously. The company began redirecting traffic to backup network sites and temporarily suspended the rollout of updates. According to Microsoft representatives, the outage was caused by an internal technical error and was not related to cyberattacks or external interference.

Who was affected by the Azure cloud outage?

The outage was most noticeable in the UK, where the Heathrow Airport website temporarily stopped working. Users were unable to check flight status and check in online. Although flights continued, airport staff were forced to partially switch to manual procedures, which led to delays and passenger dissatisfaction. Similar problems were reported in other European countries where airports and airlines used Microsoft cloud solutions to support their systems.

A similar problem was discovered by the American airline Alaska Airlines.

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The Microsoft outage also affected the British bank NatWest, which temporarily restricted online banking services. In some regions, customers were unable to log into their personal accounts, but mobile apps and telephone support continued to function. Users of retail networks and even popular games, including Minecraft, hosted on Microsoft cloud servers, experienced similar difficulties.

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What is Microsoft Azure?

The Azure platform is one of the three largest cloud infrastructures in the world, alongside Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud. Millions of websites, government portals and corporate systems run on it. When such a network experiences a failure, the consequences are felt instantly — from airport ticketing systems to online stores. According to experts, Azure's share of the global cloud market exceeds 20%, and incidents like this demonstrate the vulnerability of the global digital ecosystem, where most services are concentrated in the hands of a few companies.

Dr Sakib Kakvi of Royal Holloway University noted that the concentration of computing power in the hands of a few giants makes the internet less resilient. Saving on proprietary servers means that businesses and government agencies are dependent on one or two providers. And when one of them encounters a configuration error, the consequences can paralyse thousands of systems at once.

When will Azure be back up and running?

By the evening, most services had gradually begun to return to normal. However, Microsoft warned that some users may experience residual delays and temporary unavailability of certain features.

Microsoft Azure plans to fully restore service in the coming hours.

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