SpiceJet under attack by ransomware; morning flights affected

SpiceJet on May 25 informed of an attempted ransomware attack last night, which slowed down its operations and impacted morning flight departures. The airline posted this update on Twitter a short while ago.

“Certain SpiceJet systems faced an attempted ransomware attack last night that impacted and slowed down morning flight departures today. Our IT team has contained and rectified the situation and flights are operating normally now,” it said.

Several people said they were left waiting at the airport or stranded inside the plane with no updates from the airline.

“At airport since 5 am, no proactive notifications for the delay when the attack attempt was detected at night,” one person wrote on Twitter in a sentiment echoed by hundreds of other SpiceJet passengers who say they have been stuck for hours.

Passengers, however, have refuted the airline’s claim of flights operating normally. One Twitter user, Mudit Shejwar, said he had been stuck for nearly four hours inside a flight that was neither cancelled nor taking off. “Neither cancelling nor operating, sitting in the flight, not even the airport,” he wrote, adding that the airline had not even provided stranded passengers with food.

Passengers took to Twitter to air their grievances, claiming that SpiceJet had not communicated any updates about the delay in flights.

ALSO READ – SpiceJet to introduce inflight internet services

This comes after just days ago, SpiceJet informed that it hopes to start broadband internet service on its planes soon.

In his email to employees on the 17th anniversary of the airline, CMD Ajay Singh said the carrier continues to fly with the highest loads month after month and expects to soar even higher in the coming months.

The airline has a fleet of 91 aircraft, out of which 13 are Max planes and 46 are older versions of Boeing 737 aircraft, according to its website.

ALSO READ – Multiple SpiceJet flights halted by Delhi ATC for non-payment of daily airport user fees to AAI

Meanwhile, some SpiceJet flights were held up at the Delhi airport for some time last week as there was a delay in daily payment to the Airports Authority of India (AAI) by the airline. The airline’s spokesperson said the daily payment was delayed due to a software glitch and the flights are now operating normally.

In the “cash and carry” model, the airline has to make daily payments to the AAI for various charges — navigation, landing, parking, and others — to operate flights.