A Notice to Airmen (NOTAM F2173/26) issued late on 21 October revealed that “several interfaces used to provide MET information” were taken offline across France’s five Flight Information Regions as a precaution against cyber threats. The outage, which runs until at least 15:00 local time on 22 October, affects critical pre-flight data such as wind-shear alerts and runway surface conditions. While core aeronautical meteorology feeds remain available to air-traffic controllers, airlines must temporarily rely on backup channels and manual updates. Carriers including Air France and easyJet instructed crews to add fuel contingencies and build extra holding time into flight plans, causing minor departure delays at Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle and Lyon-Saint-Exupéry on Thursday morning. The Directorate-General for Civil Aviation (DGAC) has not disclosed the nature of the threat but confirmed that no flight-safety incidents occurred. Cybersecurity analysts note that Europe’s aviation sector has faced heightened ransomware probes since early 2026, with several airports forced to shut public-Wi-Fi portals. Corporate travel managers should anticipate possible knock-on effects—particularly missed rail or chauffeur connections—if flights into France are delayed. Cargo operators moving temperature-sensitive goods should check whether extended ground times could breach cold-chain limits. The incident underscores the need for robust cyber-resilience in aviation and may accelerate DGAC plans to migrate non-classified weather systems to a hardened cloud infrastructure by 2027.
Source: Aerobreak NOTAM Tracker
