IT issues impacted operations at two airlines in the oneworld Alliance, causing significant delays and some cancellations. On December 24, American Airlines experienced grounding for flights for up to an hour, while Japan Airlines (JAL) saw 71 flights delayed and four cancelled by December 26.

Network equipment that links internal systems at JAL malfunctioned on the morning of December 26 after it received an unusually high volume of data from an external source. This incident hinted at a possible distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack due to the sheer amount of network traffic.

JAL officials confirmed that the cause of the issues had been located and that systems were restored, emphasizing that no customer data was compromised and that there were no safety threats to flights. However, they were compelled to suspend several services, including last-minute upgrades and standby seat access. The delays ranged from half an hour to a maximum of over four hours, with those affected totaling 71 flights.

Earlier in the week, on Christmas Eve, American Airlines implemented a “nationwide groundstop” for roughly an hour, impacting Christmas travel during one of the busiest times of the year. The disruptions were attributed to a “vendor technology issue” related to network equipment overseen by DXC Technologies. The grounding advisory was lifted after about an hour, but the airline had not provided additional comments at the time of reporting.

Compared to the extensive disruptions faced by Southwest Airlines in late 2022, when thousands of flights were cancelled due to bad weather and subsequent IT system failures, these recent issues were relatively minor. The situation served as a reminder of the vulnerabilities airlines can face due to IT problems, especially during high-traffic travel periods.

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