Flights delayed around globe as Amadeus booking system fails

Bloomberg

Airlines worldwide were forced to delay flights as a global flight-bookings system operated by Amadeus IT Group SA suffered what the company called a “network issue.”
Carriers including British Airways, Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Cathay Pacific Airways and Qantas Airways were among those impacted, with Dutch operator KLM delaying at least 24 departures. Singapore’s Changi airport said via Twitter that a technical problem affecting some operators was holding up the check-in process, with boarding passes having to be issued manually.
“Amadeus confirms that, during the morning, we experienced a network issue that caused disruption to some of our systems,” the Madrid-based company said. Some airlines reported that they were affected by the glitch for a matter of minutes, though it was 3 1/2 hours before Amadeus was able to say that the network was “functioning normally.”
More than 130 airlines worldwide use Amadeus’s Altea passenger-service system, which helps manage flight reservations, inventory and departure-control capabilities, according to its website.
Amadeus has its strongest market position in Europe, and the meltdown appears to have had less of an impact in the North America. Airlines may need to review their booking mechanisms at a structural level given the recent issues, according to Bill Curtis, chief scientist at software-systems analyst CAST, who said such networks are often “patchwork quilts of code fragments” from different companies.