Microsoft global IT outage hits Indian businesses and airlines

A massive global Microsoft outage struck businesses, public services, and airlines across India and the world starting on November 12, 2026. The disruption affected cloud-based email services, internal communications, and customer support.

Impact in India

In India, the glitch hit everything from startups to large companies. A senior telecom executive said workers could not access emails or send service alerts, leading to more phone calls at call centres. Rahul Ganapathy, CEO of Atsuya Technologies, noted that customer emails and Teams meetings were disrupted. Major airlines also faced hurdles. IndiGo and Akasa Air reported email support delays, with IndiGo pointing customers to its AI assistant 6E Skai. Air India stated that flight operations remained safe, though it had to reroute its emails.

Global Effects

Government and public services abroad also suffered. Singapore and Japan reported email troubles in government offices. In Britain, Rachel Harrison of the GMB Union said National Health Service staff handling emergency calls could not check patient details properly. Britain's National Pharmacy Association reported that prescription deliveries were delayed.

Microsoft's Response

Microsoft identified Exchange Online as the main service hit. This caused timeouts in dependent tools like Teams, Copilot, and SharePoint. Charles Lamanna, executive vice president of Copilot, Agents and Platform at Microsoft, stated on Friday that recovery was making progress across affected systems. The company said it found no malicious cause for the failure.

Context

India's CERT-In issued a high-severity advisory warning of separate vulnerabilities in Microsoft products on the same day. Experts like Sambratha Shetty and Sai Rahul Poruri urged Indian firms to build backup channels and reduce reliance on a single tech provider.