JAL cyberattack disrupts operations causing flight delays and cancellations

Japan Airlines (JAL) customers experienced dozens of flight delays and cancellations on Thursday after an early morning cyberattack caused its systems to malfunction.

The Tokyo-based airline announced that at 7:24 a.m. local time, a disruption to its “network equipment” affected communications between “internal and external systems.”

JAL reported it had to temporarily shut down a network router, impacting domestic and international flights, as well as same-day ticket sales.

The malfunction caused flight delays and cancellations for most of the day, also forcing the airline carrier to suspend its "Airport Standby" service and "Same-Day Upgrade" procedures via the JAL website and JAL app.

“This failure is caused by receiving a large amount of data from an external source," JAL said in a post on its website.

No customer data was compromised during the incident, and there was no damage to the system from any malware, JAL said.

Additionally, JAL stressed that the disruption had “no impact on safe operations.”

By 8:56 a.m., JAL posted on X that it had “identified the cause of the problem and took action,” restoring its network communications by 7:45 p.m. Japan Standard Time (JST) and resuming online ticket sales.

American Airlines briefly grounded all flights for an hour this week, disrupting travel for thousands on Christmas Eve, due to a technical glitch involving network hardware.

【ネットワーク機器不具合に関するお知らせ 19:40現在】
本日、ネットワーク機器でシステム不具合が発生しておりましたが、現在は復旧しております。
明日12月27日の運航につきましては、現在のところ、平常どおりの運航を予定しています。
ご迷惑をおかけいたしましたことをお詫び申し上げます。

undefined JAL 運航情報【公式】 (@JAL_flight_info) December 26, 2024

At least 60 domestic flights were delayed by 60 minutes or more, while 11 international flights were reported by JAL to have been delayed up to about four hours. A total of at least six flights were canceled.

A spokesperson for Japan's other major air carrier, ANA Holdings, said there were no signs of an attack on its network systems.