IT outage causes major disruption at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport

Cyberattack concept

The US airport has confirmed it was the target of a cyberattack

Travel has been significantly impacted with hundreds of flights delayed at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport after a major IT outage.

Lance Lyttle, Aviation Managing Director, said: “We are conducting a thorough investigation with assistance of outside experts. We have contacted and are working closely with federal partners, including Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and Customs and Border Protection.”

Delays were caused by non-operable check-in systems which also disrupted baggage systems. TSA operations were not disrupted by the cyberattack.

FlightAware reported 460 flight delays and five flight cancellations on Sunday.

At least 70,000 passengers had planned to fly from the airport on Sunday 25 August.

A spokesperson for Alaska Airlines stated: “We are starting to see some impacts with the Port of Seattle’s baggage sorting system, so we are proactively warning guests who are flying out of Seattle to avoid checking a bag if possible.”

The reason the airport was targeted is currently unknown.

SCTI recently paid US$27,520 in claims after the 19 July CrowdStrike failure impacted multiple airports and airlines worldwide.