German Airport Websites Down Due to IT Failure

DALLAS — At least three German airport websites were down this morning, hours after a major IT failure at Lufthansa (LH) had stranded thousands of passengers at Frankfurt Airport (FRA).

Airports affected include Düsseldorf (DUS), Nuremberg (NUE), and Dortmund (DTM). The websites for Germany's three largest airports—FRA, Munich (MUC), and Berlin (BER)—remain operational.

This morning, DUS tweeted. "Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable. Current flight information on departures and arrivals can be accessed via the DUS Airport App."

According to Spiegel Online, the problems could have been caused by a DDoS attack, in which high volumes of internet traffic are directed at specific servers in a relatively simple attempt by so-called "hacktivists" to knock them offline.

IT Failure at Lufthansa

Yesterday, LH grounded all of its flights due to an IT outage. A spokesperson for LH first announced that the airline had suspended all flights due to technical issues with its computer systems.

It turned out that workers at the airport had accidentally drilled through fiber cables buried some 16 feet below ground in Eschersheim. LH is conducting an internal investigation into why its backup systems didn’t function.

Yesterday evening, the airline tweeted, "As of this morning the airlines of the Lufthansa Group are affected by an IT outage, caused by construction work in the Frankfurt region. Unfortunately, this has led to flight delays and cancellations. We are working on a solution swiftly."

This is a developing story.

Featured image: LUFTHANSA D-AIGX AIRBUS A340-300 | Photo: Max Langley/Airways