SEA Airport continues to improve post cyber-attack, gearing up for more holiday travel

SEATAC, Wash. — SEA Airport is gearing up for another pair of busy travel days Monday and Tuesday as Labor Day weekend wraps up.

The busy holiday comes a week after a suspected cyber-attack shut down the Port of Seattle’s web-based system, which caused major disruptions at SEA, and the airport expects Monday to be the busiest day during the holiday weekend.

“Busy. Hectic. Untraditional. How about that?” SEA spokesperson Perry Cooper said about the past week.

The cyber-attack forced SEA to be creative when it came to relaying information to passengers since Flight Information Displays, kiosks, and ticketing screens went dark for days. Travelers would see hand written signs and boards throughout the airport at baggage claim and ticket counters to guide people.

As of Sunday, Cooper says all airlines are set up and have their common-use systems running, meaning for the most part, things are slowly but surely returning to normal. KIRO 7 spoke with several passengers returning to Seattle. Paige Anderson, who flew to Bozeman, Montana the day after the suspected cyber-attack, says her flying experience wasn’t that interrupted overall, thanks to all the hard work staff and volunteers have put in.

“I expected huge delays, long lines…like a buzz of chaos in the air, but I haven’t felt that. So, hats off to the staff because they are keeping it running pretty nicely,” Anderson said.

Although it isn’t clear when everything at SEA will be up and running again since Flight Information Displays are still not working, Cooper says this has been a learning experience for the airport.

“Whether it’s a weather situation or an actual operational situation that may occur, our emergency preparedness department comes back together with all of our folks, and we will sit down and go, ‘Hey, what worked, what didn’t work, let’s write this down,’” Cooper said.

SEA officials are encouraging passengers flying domestic to show up 2 hours early and 3 hours for international flights.

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