Microsoft 365, Azure Services Improving After Global Outage Affecting Aviation, Telecom
The services of Alaska Airlines, Heathrow Airport, and Vodafone were reportedly affected.
Microsoft's Azure cloud platform reported progress in recovering from a widespread outage on Oct. 29, which disrupted access to key services globally and affected industries from aviation to telecommunications.
Impacted Microsoft offerings included Microsoft 365 (earlier Office 365), Xbox Live, Minecraft, Copilot, Azure Communication Services, and Media Services. Many users reported issues with accessing Microsoft 365, Outlook connectivity, logging into Minecraft, and Copilot functionality. Microsoft 365 confirmed downstream effects from the Azure disruption.
The incident, starting around 12 p.m. ET (9:30 p.m. IST), stemmed from a recent configuration change impacting Azure Front Door — a global content delivery network — and its DNS system, which translates URLs into IP addresses. This caused timeouts, errors, and blocked access to the Azure Portal and dependent services.
“Customers may experience issues accessing the Azure Portal… We have failed the portal away from Azure Front Door to attempt to mitigate the portal access issues,” Microsoft said on its status page.
User-reported issues on outage tracker Downdetector peaked at over 18,000 for Azure and nearly 11,700 for Microsoft 365, dropping to 230 and 377 respectively by 6:49 p.m. ET (4:19 a.m. IST). On Downdetector, most users noted problems with website (59%), followed by server connection (28%), and login (13%). Actual impact may have been broader.
The real-world fallout of the outage reportedly included disruption of Alaska Airlines’ website and key systems, Heathrow Airport website going offline, and Vodafone services affected.
The Microsoft outage follows last week’s major AWS outage, which disrupted sites like Snapchat and Reddit, reportedly the largest since the 2024 CrowdStrike incident that crippled hospitals, banks, and airports worldwide.
