Cyberattacks and Glitches Snarl Holiday Flights

Joe Cortez December 27, 2024

Hacker using laptop. Lots of digits on the computer screen.

Technology problems caused delays among American Airlines flyers on Christmas Eve, followed by issues for Japan Airlines travelers on Boxing Day.

If you weren’t home for Christmas (or Boxing Day), don’t blame the snow -- computers were the culprit this time.

American Airlines flyers were delayed for hours on Christmas Eve due to a tech glitch, while a cyberattack was to blame for grounded Japan Airlines flights on December 26, 2024.

“Vendor Technology Issue” Blamed for American Grounding

In the case of American Airlines, CNN reports the carrier requested the groundstop from the Federal Aviation Administration due to a “vendor technology issue” on Tuesday, December 24. The Allied Pilots Association placed the issue in on the Flights Operations System, which has a redundancy backup for situations like this.

The FAA did put a nationwide groundstop on American flights, but it was lifted as the issue was resolved. Flights were allowed to depart once again after 8 a.m. Eastern time. Although the airline resumed normal operations, it didn’t come without issues for holiday travelers. According to airline analytics company Cirium, only 37% of flights departed on time, while 36% arrived at their scheduled time.

None-the-less, data shows that flyers were still able to get to their destinations for the holiday. Cirium noted that 93% of flights departed within two hours of the scheduled departure time.

Brute Force Cyber Attack Delays Japan Airlines flyers

On the other side of the Pacific Ocean, Japan Airlines also experienced a technical issue – though this one was more deliberate. The Associated Press reports the airline experienced a cyberattack on their systems, causing the interface between internal and external systems to malfunction.

According to Japan Airlines, the carrier experienced something similar to a Distributed Denial of Service attack, where major data transmissions to the computer systems result in significant backups or ultimately computer crashes. The issue was not caused by a virus, and the airline says no customer information was leaked as a result.

In total, 24 flights were delayed due to the cyberattack, while ticket sales were suspended for several hours. It is unknown who was behind the attacks.