A far-reaching Microsoft outage hit today, paralyzing the companies dependent on the product, such as airlines and banks. Reports this morning showed that Microsoft 365 services have degraded performance. While the extent of the problem is still being evaluated, its impact is already widespread.

IT problems have struck a host of airlines and airports worldwide, grounding flights. American Airlines and Delta asked the Federal Aviation Administration, or FAA, to ground all their flights in the United States. United Airlines issued a ground stop on all of its flights, indicating just how bad this situation is. Joining the list of carriers overseas is Turkish Airlines, which currently works on resolving IT issues.

The London Stock Exchange has reported technical issues with its RNS regulatory news service, which could delay the flow of market news. This added to the uncertainty in a financial sector already wrestling with the broader implications of the Microsoft outage.

Although Microsoft had earlier claimed that the issues were resolved, the company now confirms that their systems remain degraded. The instability is still a cause of disruption across various industries.

Expert opinion says the effects of grounding aircraft can reach beyond today. Delays and cancellations will likely ripple through the weekend as schedules go out of sync. The greater the backlog of flights affected, the longer it will take to clear.

What exactly caused the outage is still unknown, and whether problems at the airline and banks were directly related to the Microsoft issues. Initial reports indicate that technical failures from Microsoft services cascaded from the United States to Asia.

The authorities and companies affected are bracing for the situation amid hope of its quick resolution to prevent further effects.