SUBANG (Aug 30): Capital A Bhd (KL:CAPITALA) said it has sought legal advice from a US law firm to seek compensation from US cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike Holdings Inc and Microsoft Corp following a global IT outage last month that forced the cancellation of thousands of flights, including AirAsia's.

“If you're saying I've forgotten about it, absolutely not. We just had a meeting with American lawyers yesterday (Thursday),” Capital A chief executive officer Tan Sri Tony Fernandes told reporters after the launch of AirAsia's inaugural jet flights to Sabah and Sarawak from Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport (Subang Airport) here on Friday.

Fernandes expressed his disappointment with the lack of communication and accountability from CrowdStrike and Microsoft in the aftermath of the July global outage.

“I haven't got any letter or apology or anything from Microsoft or CrowdStrike. They offered a phone call, to be fair, [from] CrowdStrike. But there was no follow-up,” he said.

He pointed out that while technology companies have profited immensely, they often lack the same level of scrutiny and accountability as airlines.

“They [Microsoft and CrowdStrike] have to be responsible - they are a multi-billion dollar company. They cannot just say it was a mistake. We make a mistake, you guys [media] write about it, and we have to pay for it, and everyone attacks me on Instagram or Facebook,” Fernandes lamented.

In a LinkedIn post on July 20, Fernandes said the July 19 IT outage had caused airlines to lose millions in revenue, and created chaos in people’s lives due to system failure.

AirAsia suffered losses on ticket sales and four domestic flights that were cancelled following the incident, he had said.

Fernandes was also reported as saying that it had affected AirAsia’s operations at Terminal 2 of Kuala Lumpur International Airport but that the situation had stabilised on the second day. However, the airline is “100%” asking for compensation from Microsoft. “We and other airlines lost a lot,” he had said.

Among those around the world hit by the IT outage was Delta Air Lines Inc, whose CEO Ed Bastian reportedly said last month that the outage had cost the airline about US$500 million (RM2.16 billion) and is seeking compensation from Microsoft and CrowdStrike. Delta Air Lines has since been hit by a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of affected passengers after delaying or cancelling their flights in the wake of the outage.

According to news reports, the Microsoft outage on July 19 was caused by a faulty software update that impacted eight million Windows computers worldwide. 

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