Air India

Air India is a state-owned carrier of India, one of the main providers of air transportation services in the country. The airline is part of the Star Alliance. The main hubs of the air carrier are Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai and Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi.

On board an Air India plane, 1946

History

2024: Air India joins

Airlines Vistara and [Air India are finalising the merger, announced in early September 2024. The deal marks the end of Vistara's independent operations in what experts call "a major milestone in the consolidation of India's aviation sector." Read more here.

2021: Data theft of 4.5 million passengers

At the end of May 2021, it became known that the data of almost 4.5 million passengers from all over the world were stolen from India's largest airline Air India due to an "extremely sophisticated" cyber attack. Passenger data came to hackers after hacking the Swiss organization SITA, which provides telecommunications and IT services in the aviation industry. Air India revealed the scale of the problem only three months after the first report of the data breach.

The breach involved personal data registered between August 26, 2011 and February 3, 2021 and involved name, date of birth, contact information, passport information, ticket information, Star Alliance and Air India frequent flyer data and credit card details, Air India said, adding that it did not store bank card authentication codes.

Air India data stolen from 4.5m passengers

The cyber attack occurred at the end of February and also jeopardized the data of a number of other major global airlines. Immediately after the attack, SITA Passenger Service System said Singapore Airlines, New Zealand Air and Lufthansa were also among the affected companies.

Air India later revealed that almost 4.5 million passengers from all over the world were affected by the sophisticated cyber attack, but did not specify which proportion of the compromised passengers were travelling on that company's planes. The hackers did not break passwords during the attack, the statement said. The airline has launched an investigation into the incident, for which it has engaged external data protection specialists and is taking measures to protect compromised servers. Air India also said it recommended changing the passwords of its accounts as a precaution in an email to its customers.^[1]

Notes