Heaptalk, Jakarta — Japan Airlines (JAL), one of Japan’s major air carriers, was hit by a cyberattack on Thursday (12/16), causing delays in domestic and international flights, as reported by CNBC.
The airline reported a disruption in the baggage check-in system, which delayed more than a dozen flights at several airports in Japan. However, there were no mass cancellations or significant disruptions.
“Sales for domestic and international flights departing today have been suspended. We apologize for the inconvenience,” Japan Airlines stated on the X platform, as quoted by CNBC (12/26).
According to JAL’s announcement, the network disruption began at 7:24 AM. Then, at 8:56 AM, the company temporarily isolated a router, a device for exchanging data between networks, which caused the disruption. The company added, “We identified and addressed the cause of the problem. We are checking the status of system recovery.”
On the same day, the flag carrier of Japan announced that its system had returned to normal, including resuming same-day ticket sales, as reported by Reuters (12/26). Japan Airlines assured us that no customer information had been leaked and that there had been no damage from computer viruses.
JAL shares were reported to have fallen as much as 2.5% in morning trading after the news emerged. The airline is the latest Japanese company to be hit by a cyberattack.