A cyberattack targeting three major airports in the United Kingdom has compromised the personal information of approximately 8.7 million customers, Manchester Airports Group (MAG), the operator of the affected airports, has disclosed.

The affected facilities are Manchester Airport, London Stansted Airport and East Midlands Airport.

According to MAG, an unauthorised third party gained access to systems containing customers’ email addresses, phone numbers, vehicle registration numbers and postcodes.

The compromised data was largely linked to airport Wi-Fi registrations, car park bookings, lounge reservations and Fast Track services.

MAG said it moved quickly to contain the incident and engaged specialist advisers to investigate the breach and strengthen security measures across its systems. Relevant authorities have also been notified.

The airport operator stressed that customers’ banking and payment details were not affected because such information was not stored on the compromised systems.

It also said the incident had no impact on passenger safety, aviation security or the operation of the three airports.

Customers, particularly those whose email addresses and phone numbers may have been accessed, have been urged to remain vigilant against suspicious emails, text messages or phone calls claiming to originate from the airports.

MAG apologised for the incident and said investigations were ongoing to establish the full extent of the breach.

The scale of the potential exposure is significant, with Manchester, Stansted and East Midlands airports handling more than 66 million passengers combined in the previous year.