Japan Airlines (JAL) has announced that its systems are back online after a cyberattack on Thursday caused delays to domestic and international flights. The airline, Japan’s second-largest after All Nippon Airways, stated that the “large data attack” did not result in any leakage of customer information and did not affect safety.
According to Japanese media, the incident may have been a Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack, which aims to overwhelm and disrupt a website or server. Ticket sales for domestic and international flights departing on Thursday were suspended during the incident but have since resumed.
Although the cyberattack did not cause major disruptions, JAL reported that 24 domestic flights were delayed by more than half an hour due to problems with the carrier’s baggage check-in system. The airline’s shares fell as much as 2.5% in morning trade after the news emerged but recovered later in the day.
In a separate development, a transport ministry committee released an interim report on Wednesday blaming human error for a fatal collision involving a JAL passenger jet in January 2024. The report stated that the pilot of a Coast Guard plane mistook air traffic control instructions, leading to a collision that killed five people.
Japan Airlines is the latest Japanese firm to be hit by a cyberattack, following incidents targeting the country’s space agency, JAXA, and one of Japan’s busiest ports in 2023. The incident highlights the growing concern over cybersecurity threats in the aviation industry and beyond.
