Thousands of passengers affected by flight delays following cyberattack on KLIA, reveals report

THOUSANDS of passengers were stranded after flights were affected following a cyberattack on the Kuala Lumpur International Airport's (KLIA) systems.

According to reports in the New Straits Times quoting sources, this caused a major disruption which began in the early hours of March 23 (Sunday).

Reports said the airport's flight information display system, check-in counters and baggage handling were inoperative, forcing airlines and airport staff to switch to manual operations

This is contrary to the joint statement issued by the National Cyber Security Agency (Nacsa) and Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB), which said the attack did not affect operations at the airport.

The source revealed that initial findings suggested a cyber intrusion had compromised KLIA's critical systems, leading to the prolonged outage.

"However, authorities have yet to confirm the nature of the attack or identify the parties responsible."

The source said the disruption severely impacted flight schedules, with many delays reported throughout the day.

The situation was further compounded by the lack of a robust backup system, which slowed recovery efforts.

An aviation industry source said flight information boards were down intermittently for two days following the attack before returning to normal.

"Can't say we weren't affected. Thousands of people saw that the boards weren't working." - March 26, 2025