Live updates: Follow the latest on the global IT outage
Several airports around the world issued warnings that travel could be disrupted as a result of the global IT outage.
The cause of the chaos, which has affected businesses from Australia to North America, is unclear, but several companies said problems with Microsoft were linked to a cyber security company called CrowdStrike.
Gatwick Airport in London warned passengers that services were "affected by the global Microsoft issues, so passengers may experience some delays while checking in and passing through security". Dublin Airport issued a similar statement.
Officials at Heathrow Airport assured travellers that flights were still operational.
"Microsoft is currently experiencing a global outage which is impacting select systems at Heathrow," a statement read.
"Flights are operational and we are implementing contingency plans to minimise any impact on journeys. Please check with your airline for the latest flight information."
Airlines including Vueling and Ryanair shared similar messages online, warning travellers of the possibility of delays.
In the UAE, flydubai assured passengers that its services had not been affected.
Etihad Airways said it was operating normally, but that passengers could be affected by "limited delays to services across its network", while Emirates confirmed there had been no impact on their flight operations.
"There may be delays to some flight timings later today, due to knock-on effects from delayed departures from some airports around our network," said an Emirates spokesperson.
Dubai Airports confirmed that Dubai International (DXB) was operating normally following a global system outage that affected the check-in process for some airlines in Terminals 1 and 2 on Friday morning.
"The affected airlines promptly switched to an alternate system, allowing normal check-in operations to resume swiftly," a Dubai Airports spokesperson said.
Indian carriers such as SpiceJet, IndiGo and Air India posted on X to inform passengers that there could be disruption to flights.
"Our digital systems have been impacted temporarily due to the current Microsoft outage, resulting in delays. We regret the inconvenience caused and request our guests to plan their travel accordingly," Air India said.
Aena, a company that looks after 46 airports in Spain, issued a statement saying operations were being dealt with manually. "Due to an incident in the computer system, alterations are occurring in the Aena systems and in Spain's airport network, which could cause delays," it said.
"We are working to resolve it as soon as possible. Meanwhile, operations are being handled manually."
In Sydney, airport officials told customers the chaos has affected operations. "A global technical outage has impacted some airline operations and terminal services," Sydney Airport said in a statement.
"Flights are currently arriving and departing, however there may be some delays throughout the evening. We have activated our contingency plans and deployed additional staff to our terminals."
Melbourne Airport said check-in procedures for some airlines had been affected.
Turkish Airlines, the world's largest airline by number of destinations, told passengers it was experiencing problems with ticketing, check-in and reservations due to "a global technical issue in our information systems".
The carrier advised passengers to follow its social media channels for updates.
From its hub in Istanbul, Turkish Airlines operates dozens of routes in the Middle East and North Africa, including Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Riyadh, Dammam, Muscat, Bahrain and Doha.
The company's website showed an error message this morning, advising users that the site was unavailable.
Turkish low-cost carrier Pegasus Airlines, which also flies to destinations across the Middle East, appeared to be operating normally on Friday morning.
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21 Lessons for the 21st Century
Yuval Noah Harari, Jonathan Cape
History's medical milestones
1799 - First small pox vaccine administered
1846 - First public demonstration of anaesthesia in surgery
1861 - Louis Pasteur published his germ theory which proved that bacteria caused diseases
1895 - Discovery of x-rays
1923 - Heart valve surgery performed successfully for first time
1928 - Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin
1953 - Structure of DNA discovered
1952 - First organ transplant - a kidney - takes place
1954 - Clinical trials of birth control pill
1979 - MRI, or magnetic resonance imaging, scanned used to diagnose illness and injury.
1998 - The first adult live-donor liver transplant is carried out
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
