Dive Brief:
- Widespread system outages dragged into the fourth day at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in the wake of a cyberattack that began disrupting services at the Port of Seattle, which operates the airport, Saturday morning.
- Most flights are departing and arriving as scheduled, cruise ship operations are operating as normal, and security checkpoints and systems are not impacted, officials said in media briefings on Sunday and Monday. But many other services for the Port of Seattle remain offline, including the facilities’ primary websites, phone, email, Wi-Fi, flight display screens, common use check-in kiosks and the airport’s lost and found, officials said.
- Some airline staff and airport personnel are handwriting boarding passes and sorting bags manually, which is causing delays, port officials said. The Port of Seattle said there is no estimated time for a recovery and resumption of normal operations, in a Monday update.
Dive Insight:
Port and federal officials with the Transportation Security Administration and U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport’s passenger terminal and airport security systems remain intact and all screening measures remain in place.
The most significant delays are occurring at check-in counters and bag check stations. Frontier Airlines, Spirit Airlines, Sun Country Airlines and international carriers that use the airport’s common use check-in counters, gates and kiosks are especially impacted by the ongoing outages, Perry Cooper, senior manager of media relations at the port, said Monday during a media briefing.
“The situation is frustrating for everyone, particularly our passengers who need to board a plane on time or collect their luggage so they can get on their way quickly,” Lance Lyttle, aviation managing director at the Port of Seattle, said in a Sunday update.
The port did not describe the nature of the cyberattack and is conducting an investigation with assistance from outside experts, the TSA and federal agencies.
“We can’t yet say when this will be resolved,” Lyttle said. “We are working with outside resources, as well as the port’s robust information technology department and, believe me, we all want to handle this as quickly as possible.”
The Seattle-Tacoma International Airport sees about 1,400 arrivals and departures on a typical day, and “even with the current challenges that we’re facing right now, we’ve only had four cancellations at this point,” Lyttle said Sunday.
The Port of Seattle did not return emails, and calls to the port and airport failed, including the non-emergency line for the airport police department. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment. The FBI said it is aware of the incident and declined further comment.
