Airport chaos as computer check-in systems crash worldwide

Travellers around the world faced major delays at airports after computer check-in systems crashed.

Passengers reported problems in Melbourne, London, Paris, Singapore, Tokyo and Hong Kong.

Customers faced long waits at check-in counters and some experienced problems with checking in online.

It is understood the problem was affecting Amadeus Alter software which is used by more than 100 airlines around the world.

Amadeus confirmed it was experiencing a "network issue that is causing disruption".

“Technical teams are working on the problem, services are gradually being restored," it said.

Qantas is believed to be one of the airlines affected, however Virgin Australia is not.

"Virgin Australia operations are unaffected as they use alternative software," a spokesperson told 9news.com.au.

Shane Miles was flying with Qantas from Tokyo's Haneda Airport to Sydney when he got stuck in a check-in queue for close to two hours.

"When we got to Haneda there was already about 50 people lined up," Mr Miles told 9news.com.au.

"We lined up and about five minutes later they announced that check in systems were down and they were working on it.

"The line didn't move for about an hour... (and) after about an hour they started checking people in manually and it took about 45 mins to get through to where we were.

"They said there were 'check in system software failures,'" he said.

Mr Miles added the Qantas staff made announcements every "five minutes" and his flight left Tokyo on time.

Images on social media show long queues stretching for several metres around the airport.

https://twitter.com/osamanasir/status/913344263097683968

"We had issues checking into Gatwick in London flying to Iceland on Icelandair - check-in system kept crashing," Leanne Lindsay wrote on Facebook.

"It took ages to get through check-in."