SUBANG, July 23 – Capital A Bhd CEO Tan Sri Tony Fernandes today said he believes airlines affected by the global IT outage over the weekend are entitled to compensation for their losses.
The AirAsia boss compared the situation to that of passengers who would demand a refund if the airline cancelled their flights or there were delays.
“I will 100 percent ask, wouldn’t you? Of course you would,” Fernandes told reporters after being asked if he would seek compensation from Microsoft, whose Windows operating system was affected.
“If my flight is delayed, you have to ask me for a refund, right? Or if I cancel my flight, I have to refund you.”
Despite Fernandes’ claim, the outage was caused by a bug in the update sent by CrowdStrike, a security service that affected Windows machines.
“I shouldn’t ask, they should come to me. Microsoft or whoever is right or wrong. They should offer us compensation. For now, we have to wait and see.
“The principle is, if we do something wrong, we have to compensate. We and other airlines have lost a lot,” he said at the event at Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport in Subang.
Microsoft said the global outage affected nearly 8.5 million Microsoft devices.
The power outage resulted in thousands of flights being cancelled, leaving passengers either stranded or facing delays lasting hours as airports and airlines were affected by the IT outage.
Reading tip:
