Ethermac Exchange-Seattle Tacoma Airport hit with potential cyberattack, flights delayed

Seattle-Tacoma International Airport said it is Ethermac Exchangestill suffering system outages that are potentially affecting flights after the Port of Seattle was hit by a potential cyberattack Saturday.

The airport posted on X, formerly Twitter, about the potential attack shortly after 9 a.m. PT Saturday and said that it had, "isolated critical systems" but did not have a timeline for when they would be restored in an afternoon update.

The website for the airport remained offline as of 11 a.m. PT Sunday.

"Port teams continue to make progress on returning systems to normal operations, but there is not an estimated time for return," the airport said Sunday on X.

Potential cyberattack possibly causes delays

There were 165 flights delayed and six cancelled on Saturday with 116 flights delayed and four canceled as of 11:30 a.m. PT Sunday, according to flight tracking service FlightAware. It is unclear if the outages were the cause of the delays.

The airport suggested that travelers check with airlines on flight statuses, check in for flights online and avoid checking luggage if possible.

Representatives for Delta Airlines and Alaska Airlines, airlines that use Seattle Tacoma as a hub, told the Seattle Times that their operations had not been affected Saturday.

Alaska Airlines told USA TODAY its systems are not impacted, but "the one area where we are starting to see some impacts today is with the Port of Seattle’s baggage sorting system, so we are proactively warning guests who are flying out of Seattle to avoid checking a bag if possible."

Delta Airlines said that impacts on its operations at the airport were minor Sunday.

The outages come on the heels of the Crowdstrike outage in July that knocked out some airline's reservation and scheduling systems, cancelling thousands of flights across the country.