Microsoft 365 Outage Grounds Three SpiceJet Departures as Indian Carriers Reroute Email

Three SpiceJet departures from Delhi were cancelled on Friday, November 13, 2026, during a global Microsoft 365 outage that degraded customer communications at two of India's largest carriers. Two further SpiceJet services were delayed. IndiGo and Akasa Air both warned passengers that email might not reach their support teams.

The outage began on November 12 and hit Microsoft 365 services including Outlook, Teams and other business applications used by organisations worldwide. By November 13, Microsoft was reporting restoration progress across North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, though intermittent access problems and delayed messages persisted. The company warned that backlogged emails could take additional time to deliver.

Which flights were actually cancelled?

The reported cancellations covered SpiceJet routes from Delhi to Pune, Leh and Mumbai, according to News9 and ABP Live, which linked the disruption to the Microsoft failure. Services from Delhi to Darbhanga and Mumbai were also reported delayed.

The causal link, however, remains unproven. An independent operational confirmation establishing that Microsoft caused these particular cancellations was not immediately available. Cancellations can stem from several operational factors even when a major technology outage is simultaneously affecting airline communications. The distinction matters, and nobody has yet closed the evidentiary gap.

Air India reported no impact at all. The carrier said flights and customer communication channels were operating normally, having temporarily rerouted its email traffic to keep messages flowing to support teams. Air India maintained its usual 24-hour response timeframe.

How did IndiGo and Akasa Air respond?

IndiGo confirmed the Microsoft disruption had affected its email support system and warned that customer messages might not be received. The airline directed passengers requiring urgent assistance to 6E Skai, its digital customer support service, accessible through the IndiGo website and mobile application.

Akasa Air reported similar difficulties. Its customer support emails were experiencing delays and some incoming messages might not arrive. The carrier advised passengers to use its 24-hour Akasa Care Centre or its official social media channels instead.

Neither advisory indicated widespread cancellations or suspended flight operations. Customer support failed; aircraft, broadly speaking, did not.

Delhi Airport issued its own advisory, recommending passengers check flight status before travelling to the terminal.

What does the outage mean for passengers?

The operational lesson is narrow but real. Even when aircraft operations, reservation systems and airport check-in procedures remain unaffected, interruptions to customer support complicate flight changes, refund requests and assistance for stranded passengers. An airline that cannot read its inbox is an airline that cannot rebook efficiently.

Passengers travelling with IndiGo or Akasa Air should avoid relying solely on email for urgent requests until normal service resumes. Airline websites, mobile applications, telephone support and verified social media accounts offer more reliable channels. Travellers from Delhi, particularly those booked on SpiceJet, should confirm flight status directly with the airline before leaving for the airport.

Passengers who already submitted email requests should verify their messages arrived. Some communications sent during the outage may still be delayed.

How does this compare with CrowdStrike in 2024?

The scale is modest by recent standards. The disruption has not been shown to have caused anything approaching the worldwide flight cancellations of the CrowdStrike-related failure in July 2024, an event that cost Delta Air Lines an estimated $500 million and prompted the carrier to seek compensation from both CrowdStrike and Microsoft.

Microsoft acknowledged the disruption and said engineers were working to restore affected infrastructure and improve service availability. For airlines, the episode underlines a familiar arithmetic: one widely used platform fails, and dozens of carriers lose a communication channel at once. Airlines that maintain alternative channels — as Air India demonstrably did — will keep answering the phone. The rest will keep explaining why they never received the email.