SUBANG JAYA: AirAsia will seek compensation from the relevant parties following the recent global tech outage that crippled airlines, banks, hospitals and emergency response systems, says Tan Sri Tony Fernandes.

The Capital A Bhd chief executive officer said those responsible for the outage should have been proactive in coming clean and offering compensation.

“I 100% will ask (for compensation), wouldn’t you? Of course you would.

“If (we) cancel (our) flights, we have to give a refund. If we do something wrong, we give you a refund,” he said when met at the Subang Airport here yesterday.

Fernandes was responding to a question whether AirAsia was going to demand compensation after the July 19 outage that disrupted the low-cost airline’s booking and check-in operations and forced the cancellation of several flights.

He claimed that the recent global tech outage involving CrowdStrike resulted in significant business losses.

Fernandes said he should not have had to ask about compensation if the tech companies were more answerable.

“They should come to me. They should offer us compensation. Right now we have to wait and see. The principle is, if we do something wrong, we have to compensate,” he said.

Microsoft reportedly said more than 8.5 million devices were affected by the outage caused by its cyber security partner CrowdStrike, which led to airlines, banks, call centres, transportation and healthcare systems struggling worldwide.

CrowdStrike reportedly said the outage was caused by a defect in an update to its “Falcon” cybersecurity defence software for Windows hosts.

Earlier, Fernandes celebrated, in a simple ceremony, the low-cost airline’s return to its humble beginnings at the Subang Airport after two decades.

AirAsia’s operations and expansion at the Subang Airport will commence with two domestic destinations – Kuching and Kota Kinabalu – with 14 flights each weekly, starting on Aug 30.

“It is wonderful to be back, it is where we started. It’s only two planes but we will keep growing.

“We hope to fly to international destinations soon,” he said, also thanking the Transport Ministry for allowing AirAsia to return to the airport.

Fernandes also unveiled the new AirAsia+ experience, exclusive at the Subang Airport and catered to business travellers.

“As a city airport, Subang will cater to business passengers who desire additional services beyond the standard AirAsia offering at KLIA2.

“We will give a different product for Subang. We will announce the details in due course,” he said, adding that the first AirAsia+ experience would start with its first flight on Aug 30.

In his speech, Fernandes called for the creation of a Malaysian Airlines Association, as there were many issues where airlines are not represented, leading to “some crazy decisions” being made.

Meanwhile in SEREMBAN, Transport Minister Anthony Loke said passengers upset with flight delays or cancellations after a global crash of Microsoft Windows can lodge their complaints with the Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom).

He said hundreds of local flights were delayed or cancelled, with low-cost carrier AirAsia being the hardest hit as it used the Microsoft system to check-in passengers.

“Hundreds of flights were affected over two or three days as the system took about 24 hours to get running again.

“The crash was totally unexpected and this had affected tens of thousands of travellers during that period,” he said.

https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2024/07/24/fernandes-well-seek-compensation-over-global-tech-glitch