SpiceJet, an Indian low-cost carrier, was hit by ransomware, causing a slew of passenger flight delays at Delhi Airport.
The news of the breach broke on the morning of May 25, 2022, when scheduled airline flights from its Indian hubs of Delhi (DEL) and Hyderabad (HYD) were unable to depart (HYD). According to the Times of India, the airline waited many hours to resolve the issue, which stranded hundreds of people at nearby airports.
“Certain SpiceJet systems faced an attempted ransomware attack last night that impacted and slowed down morning flight departures today,” SpiceJet wrote in a statement, which was published on social media. “Our IT team has contained and rectified the situation and flights are operating normally now.”
This isn’t the first time SpiceJet passengers have experienced flight delays due to system failures this month.
Several SpiceJet flights were delayed by up to 90 minutes at DEL airport on May 21, 2022, when the airline failed to make its daily payment to the Airports Authority of India (AAI).
According to a statement released by the Civil Aviation Authority of India, the AAI’s air traffic control was told not to allow the airline’s plane to take off until the payment was made.
SpiceJet’s representative told the Financial Express that the airline was unable to pay on time owing to a software error, but that once the problem was rectified, the airline was able to resume normal operations.
“Due to a technical glitch in SAP, the automatic daily payment could not be processed. The same is being made manually to AAI which has been apprised of the issue. SpiceJet’s flight operations are now continuing normally,” the spokesperson said.
