Japan Airlines says hackers accessed booking data of about 92,000 customers through Amadeus system

Japan Airlines (JAL) and its subsidiary Japan Transocean Air say an intruder accessed reservation data belonging to about 92,000 of their customers through a breach at Amadeus, the Spanish company whose passenger service system handles the airlines’ bookings, ticketing and check-in.

In a notice updated on Friday 30 October, JAL said Amadeus told it on 23 October that it had found traces of outside access to part of the airlines’ reservation records. The traces cover the period from 10 August 2023 to 23 September 2026.

For about 90,000 customers, the data accessed was the booking reference, name, flight date, route and class of travel, JAL said. For about 2,000 more it also included email address, phone number, passport number, nationality, frequent flyer number, ticket number and seat number. The airline said no credit card numbers or passwords were compromised, that Amadeus had completed the necessary security measures, and that there was “currently no evidence” of misuse. Flights were not affected.

JAL said it had emailed the affected customers and asked people to watch for phishing emails, calls and fake websites using the airline’s name.

BleepingComputer reported that Amadeus disclosed a flaw in its travel booking display environment on 1 October, and that All Nippon Airways, Asiana Airlines and Korean Air have also reported effects from the Amadeus incident. Amadeus did not answer BleepingComputer’s questions about how many other airlines were affected. Amadeus says its systems are used by more than 400 airlines.

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