A global Microsoft outage that began Thursday evening is preventing Molslinjen from sending ferry booking confirmations and leaving some DSB passengers unable to open e-mailed train tickets on Friday.
The disruption reached Danish ferry and train customers on Friday, November 13. Molslinjen, which sails between Jutland and Zealand, called the breakdown a major administrative problem, according to reporting by Ritzau carried by Kristeligt Dagblad. The company told TV2 Østjylland it cannot send automatic confirmation e-mails to customers.
A Molslinjen representative said the lack of mails creates an uncertain situation for travelers. The automatic mail is their assurance that the purchase went through, the company said. Molslinjen writes on its website that bookings are still registered.
On Friday morning the ferry operator was examining whether confirmations could be sent another way, per the same report. Danish state railway operator DSB had seen no customer problems before 10:00, as noted by Seoghør.dk, which also drew on Ritzau.
Shortly after 10:00, DSB’s press desk told Ritzau that customers who received tickets by e-mail may be unable to reach their mailbox. Those passengers cannot then show the ticket. DSB said anyone who cannot access a purchased ticket should contact customer service, which can produce it.
By far the largest share of DSB tickets is sold through the company’s app, the press desk added. Customers who bought in the app are not affected by the outage.
What is known about the Microsoft breakdown
The outage started Thursday evening and continued into Friday. It hit Outlook, Teams and other Microsoft 365 services, according to CNBC. Downdetector recorded the disruption spreading to Microsoft products in 74 countries and territories within an hour, as reported by Yahoo Finance.
Microsoft said a portion of its infrastructure was under elevated load, and that a number of servers were unexpectedly unavailable. That explanation was reported by NPR, which also noted nearly 130,000 Downdetector reports about Outlook at Thursday’s peak.
The company said it was not aware of malicious activity behind the failure, per CNN. CNN also reported that Microsoft described only marginal success in patching servers, with no sustained recovery yet. DR was referred by Microsoft Denmark to a post by Microsoft’s Charles Lamanna, who said there were no signs of a cyber attack, according to Bytes Europe.
What it means for internationals who booked tickets by e-mail
DSB is Denmark’s state railway operator and runs most long-distance train services, alongside local public transport in the capital region. Molslinjen operates the Kattegat ferry routes between Jutland and Zealand. Both companies rely on automated e-mail to deliver proof of purchase, which is the part of the system now failing.
For foreign residents and visitors who book online rather than through a Danish app, the practical points are narrow and sourced. Molslinjen states that bookings remain registered even when no confirmation mail arrives. DSB’s press desk says its kundeservice, the customer service line, can retrieve a ticket that cannot be opened in a blocked mailbox.
What is not yet known is when e-mail delivery will be fully restored, since Microsoft had not reported a sustained recovery when CNN published its update. No Danish ministry or agency has issued a statement about the outage. Travelers holding app tickets are unaffected, according to DSB.
