Grounded by a Glitch:

Picture this: your fleet’s prepped, passengers are queueing, the weather’s finally playing nice — and then, at 03:00 UTC, a critical third-party software platform goes dark. No check-ins. No boarding. No passenger updates. 

Welcome to one of the biggest modern threats to airline operations: vendor failure.

The Invisible Risk in Plain Sight

Airlines run on software. Not just for convenience — for continuity. From reservations to maintenance logs, flight planning to crew rosters, your digital ecosystem is as mission-critical as jet fuel. And much of it? Outsourced.

Third-party vendors provide the backbone for everything from flight operations and PSS platforms to maintenance tracking and revenue management. But what happens when one of them goes down, disappears, or quietly changes priorities?

You don’t just lose access. You lose time, money, compliance footing — and in some cases, passenger trust.

Vendor Failure Isn't Just an IT Problem

We’ve seen it play out: an unplanned outage in a reservation system creates airport chaos. A broken maintenance log delays multiple aircraft. A crew management glitch triggers rota misalignments that ripple across continents.

Vendor failure isn’t theoretical. It’s happening — and the impact isn’t limited to IT departments. The consequences are operational, commercial, regulatory, and reputational. 

Risk Isn’t Just Cyber

Vendor failure risks go deeper:

• Availability: What happens if the system is simply inaccessible?
• Continuity: If your vendor folds tomorrow, can you keep running?
• Dependency: Are you locked out of the software, the data or both?

It’s not about assuming the worst. It’s about being ready for anything.

One Glitch. Global Fallout.

Think back to the 2023 vendor outage that left multiple airlines grounded. Not because their internal systems failed — but because they relied on a shared third-party provider.

You might have best-in-class engineers, resilient systems, and clear escalation routes. But if your vendor holds the keys to your mission-critical software and decides (or is forced) to walk away — you’re left standing at the gate.

Where Software Escrow Fits In

Software escrow is a simple but powerful idea. You place the vendor’s source code, documentation, and deployment materials into a secure, neutral account. If something happens — vendor insolvency, acquisition, catastrophic failure — you can access what you need to keep your operations running.

Done right, escrow creates a win-win:

• Vendors demonstrate professionalism and continuity planning.
• Airlines gain peace of mind and fallback access in worst-case scenarios.

It’s the operational insurance policy that isn’t an insurance policy — it’s access, control, and clarity, when you need it most.

Why Verification Is the Game-Changer

Now, escrow is step one. But let’s be honest: unverified escrow is like buying a spare engine and never checking if it fits your aircraft.

That’s where source code verification comes in.

Verification ensures that what’s in escrow isn’t just present, but usable. It confirms:

• The code matches the live application
• It can be compiled and deployed
• All dependencies and documentation are included

In other words, it’s not just sitting in a vault — it’s ready to go if you ever need it.

And for risk directors? That’s gold. You’re not just hedging your bets — you’re giving your teams something they can actually work with in a crisis.

Real-World Applications

Let’s put this in context. Say your vendor provides a custom crew rostering system. It’s deeply integrated, tightly configured — and utterly critical.

Now imagine that vendor gets acquired, and the product roadmap is shelved. No support. No updates. Just a slow drift into obsolescence.

With escrow and verification in place, you have options:

• You can keep the application running internally
• You can migrate or rebuild from a known-good state
• You can avoid being blindsided by a vendor's internal priorities

It’s not about clinging to the past — it’s about owning your continuity.

Risk Planning That Actually Works

Building a practical plan for vendor failure doesn’t need to be a 60-slide workshop. It just needs four things:

1. Clarity on critical systems
   Identify the applications that really matter. If it failing causes aircraft to stop or regulators to call — it’s on the list.
2. Contractual transparency
   Ask about continuity, data access, source code rights, and business failure scenarios.
3. Independent fallback measures
   Use escrow and verification to give your organisation a clean exit lane, should you ever need it.
4. Scenario testing
   Run realistic simulations. Don’t just plan for the sunny day — plan for the 03:00 UTC vendor outage that throws the day off course.

People Need More Than Process

Here’s the thing: when vendor failure hits, it’s people who carry the weight. Ground staff handling angry passengers. Ops teams chasing support lines. Comms trying to salvage the brand.

Risk strategy isn’t just about frameworks and fallback clauses. It’s about protecting your people from panic, your passengers from chaos, and your business from brand damage.

When you embed tools like software escrow and verification into your continuity toolkit, you’re not just checking boxes — you’re showing your teams that you’ve thought this through.

Closing Thoughts: Own the Risk, Don’t Avoid It

Vendor failure isn’t a hypothetical anymore. It’s real, it’s rising, and it’s risky in all the wrong places.

But that doesn’t mean you have to sit and hope your critical vendors don’t stumble. It means getting proactive. It means putting agreements in place that work for the worst day — not just the best one.

And yes, it means investing in mechanisms like software escrow and source code verification — not because you expect failure, but because you plan for it.