Radixx, a tech firm that collaborates with low-cost airlines, has shared that a malware attack caused an outage to carrier reservation systems this week. The company highlights that approximately 20 airlines have been impacted by the issue.
Unusual activity
On April 20th, Radixx, a subsidiary of Sabre Corporation noticed peculiar activity in regard to its Radixx Res passenger processing platform. Following an investigation, it was evident that malware was behind this anomaly.
Radixx emphasizes it was its highest priority to identify and deal with any problems, and to restore service as soon as it could. According to the company, passenger information was not affected by the attack.
“Radixx Res™ operates in its historical, dedicated datacenter, which is a separate operational environment from Sabre systems. Based on the investigation to date, Sabre’s systems, including its GDS, Airline IT, SabreSonic passenger service system and Hospitality Solutions systems, were not impacted. The company also noted its investigation indicates that the Radixx database containing customer information was not compromised in the event.” Sabre Corporation shares in a statement released on April 22nd.
“The company is taking steps to stand up a new Radixx application server environment.”
Radixx Res supports both ticketed and ticketless processes. A key benefit that is promoted with the system is its rapid development and deployment to allow for efficient operations during peak periods.
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Bookings impacted
Notably, a low-cost carrier that uses this system is Avelo. The Los Angeles-based start-up launched ticket sales earlier this month, offering fares as low as $19. The operator’s first flight will be between Burbank and Santa Rosa on April 28th, and there had been a significantly positive response when it came to sales.
However, tickets can’t be booked on the airline’s website as of writing. The booking page has a message stating that its reservation system provider is beginning to restore its system functionality. It believes that reservations will be able to be conducted again as soon as today, April 24th. Nonetheless, existing bookings and flight schedules are not affected.
Industry concerns
This news follows another notable travel industry cyberattack last month. Aviation IT and telecommunication services group SITA had announced that there was a data security incident involving specific customer data that was held on its Horizon passenger service system servers. Additionally, on April 5th, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and United Airlines’ booking systems temporarily went down due to technical issues with Google-provided software.
Altogether, Radixx is an operation under Sabre Corporation, which is an absolute powerhouse when it comes to travel technology. Sabre is North America’s biggest global distributions provider for air travel bookings and was founded by American Airlines over 60 years ago. Large corporations are often targets of cyberattacks such as this. Therefore, the company will undoubtedly be working hard to resolve the situation as soon as possible.
What are your thoughts about this malware incident? Have you been impacted by the issue when trying to book a ticket? Let us know what you think of the situation in the comment section.