Aviation Week's Window Seat Podcast
Sep 25, 2026 · 26 min · 9 segments
AirportNEXT Solutions Chairman Paul Ouimet discusses the Airport Futures Study, a comprehensive survey and analysis of what North American airport executives believe will be the key trends over the…
Paul OuimetGuestAaron KarpHostAnd one thing that really jumped out at me that cybersecurity was considered the most important trend, and it was by a wide margin.
Of course, the most prominent example here in North America was the 2024 cyber attack on Seattle Tacoma International Airport.
And The airlines were able to keep the flights moving, but had to resort to using pens and paper to check people in.
It took about a week to get most of the systems back on, but some like three weeks.
It was later determined by a group that was well-known and they wanted a ransom from the airport and that sort of thing.
Could you talk a little bit about that finding and why the airport executives are so concerned about this?
And as you said, the SeaTac attack was really a major, major development in our industry.
You know, there was a Robert De Niro series last year on Netflix called Zero Day, and it's sort of a shocking reminder of how vulnerable we are, you know, to cyberspace.
But what we've seen really, I think, in the last few years, a significant increase in ransomware attacks on our transportation and logistics industry.
Last year, the number that we've seen in terms of research is over 280 ransomware attacks on the industry.
And a lot of this is around, you know, credential theft and unauthorized access into our systems, but clearly a major issue.
incident also just after the SeaTac attack that involved Kelowna, a couple other Canadian airports and a US airport where their PA system was actually hacked and their flight information system was taken over and there was All sorts of religious messages that were played over their system.
It was shut down very quickly, but, you know, another shocking reminder of just how vulnerable our system is.
And one thing that really jumped out at me that cybersecurity was considered the most important trend, and it was by a wide margin.
Of course, the most prominent example here in North America was the 2024 cyber attack on Seattle Tacoma International Airport.
And The airlines were able to keep the flights moving, but had to resort to using pens and paper to check people in.
It took about a week to get most of the systems back on, but some like three weeks.
It was later determined by a group that was well-known and they wanted a ransom from the airport and that sort of thing.
Could you talk a little bit about that finding and why the airport executives are so concerned about this?
And as you said, the SeaTac attack was really a major, major development in our industry.
You know, there was a Robert De Niro series last year on Netflix called Zero Day, and it's sort of a shocking reminder of how vulnerable we are, you know, to cyberspace.
But what we've seen really, I think, in the last few years, a significant increase in ransomware attacks on our transportation and logistics industry.
Last year, the number that we've seen in terms of research is over 280 ransomware attacks on the industry.
And a lot of this is around, you know, credential theft and unauthorized access into our systems, but clearly a major issue.
incident also just after the SeaTac attack that involved Kelowna, a couple other Canadian airports and a US airport where their PA system was actually hacked and their flight information system was taken over and there was All sorts of religious messages that were played over their system.
It was shut down very quickly, but, you know, another shocking reminder of just how vulnerable our system is.
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