A series of technical malfunctions disrupted the services of airlines, banks, and temporarily the London Stock Exchange on Friday following widespread issues from the US to Asia after Microsoft Corp. reported a service outage.

American airlines, including United, Delta, and American Airlines, have announced that their aircraft will remain grounded. Ryanair has also warned of "possible network-wide disruptions." Flights currently in the air will continue, but no new flights will take off for the time being.

The London Stock Exchange announced it is operating normally but reported issues with its regulatory news service (RNS).

"The RNS news service is currently facing a global third-party technical problem, preventing the publication of news on www.londonstockexchange.com," the statement said.

"Technical teams are working to restore the service. Other services across the group, including the London Stock Exchange, continue to operate normally."

Airlines, broadcasters, and banks are affected, including Sky News in the UK, which halted its operations. Airports in the UK and worldwide reported delays, with some flights suspended.

In Australia, airports, stores, and communications are affected, with the country's National Cyber Security Coordinator describing it as a "large-scale technical outage." UK rail companies are also reporting delays.

Microsoft states it continues to address "the lingering effects" of the outage.

The initial malfunctions appeared in the US late Thursday and were attributed to a failure in Microsoft services, including Azure and 365. Frontier Airlines, a unit of Frontier Group Holdings Inc. based in Denver, grounded its flights for over two hours, blaming issues on Microsoft's online services. The airline lifted the nationwide suspension of departures and began resuming flights at 11 p.m. New York time.

The LSE Group, which manages the London Stock Exchange, stated it is dealing with a global technical problem that hinders news publication. In Asia, Japanese users began reporting issues with services like Microsoft 365 in the afternoon. Airports in Mumbai and Hong Kong reverted to manual passenger checks.

The latest failures followed Microsoft's announcement that it had resolved a cloud services Azure outage.

An official update from Microsoft 365 services posted on X earlier in the day said, "We are investigating an issue affecting users' ability to access various Microsoft 365 applications and services."

However, a Microsoft spokesperson stated that "the majority of services were restored earlier" in the day.

A spokesperson for Australia's Home Affairs Minister said the outage appears related to an issue with global cybersecurity company Crowdstrike. The country's cybersecurity watchdog stated there is no information suggesting it was an attack.

"Our current information indicates that this outage is related to a technical issue with a third-party software platform used by the affected companies," they said in a statement.

Alaskan officials reported that many 911 and non-emergency call centers were not functioning properly.

Meanwhile, at Sydney Airport, information disappeared from departure boards. In an announcement to passengers in the domestic terminal, budget airline Jetstar stated that a "problem with Microsoft" meant it couldn't check in passengers or board its flights.

Virgin Australia also told its travelers that there was a "complete halt of flights." Social media users reported queues at stores like Woolworths, with payment systems down.

The Australian outage tracking website Downdetector reported issues from the National Australia Bank, telecommunications company Telstra, Google, and others.

Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport is the latest to report delays.

"The outage is impacting flights to and from Schiphol," a spokesperson said, adding that it is still unclear how many flights are affected.

Meanwhile, at London's Stansted Airport, some check-ins are being done manually, but "flights are still operating normally."

"Our main operational systems are not affected," a spokesperson said, but "some retail payment machine services are impacted."

"It all points to an issue with Crowdstrike. If it were a Windows issue, it would be even more widespread," commented Joe Tidy, a cybersecurity expert. "The irony here, of course, is that Crowdstrike is a cybersecurity product designed to protect computer networks from outages. In this case, it appears that it was this software that led to these massive problems."