Technical glitch shuts down Cathay Pacific online bookings for almost 24 hours

Angry customers bombarded Cathay Pacific Airways with complaints as the firm tried to fix a major online booking problem that lasted almost a whole day.

Customers could not book flights through the airline’s website or mobile app from Monday afternoon.

Cathay Pacific said the site was under maintenance, but the length of downtime suggested a more serious technical problem. As of 1pm on Tuesday, the booking system returned to normal, and by 4pm, the promotional “fanfares” were accessible.

The airline, Hong Kong’s flag carrier, posted several messages on its website explaining the situation, including: “We’re experiencing technical difficulties. Our engineers are working hard to get the site back online. Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused.”

One of the travel alerts on the airline’s website warned customers its online booking system was offline for maintenance and would be “unavailable for the next few hours’’.

Esther Hooi wrote on the company’s Facebook page: “Hey Cathay Pacific, I think your website is down especially on the booking page. Both “leaving from” and “destination” drop down menu is unavailable. I tried with Google Chrome, IE [Internet Explorer], Firefox and yet all not working. Please fix it ASAP. Thanks.”