Discover how vulnerabilities in third-party suppliers put passenger safety and operations of the UK aviation industry at risk, and why strengthening supply chain risk management is now a critical board-level priority for aviation leaders.
Thales reported a 600% year-on-year increase in ransomware attacks against aviation in 2023–2024. The aviation industry is facing a wave of cyber attacks at a scale never seen before. Supply chain breaches in particular are hitting unprecedented levels of frequency and sophistication.
Attack groups like Scattered Spider have shifted their attention to aviation, recognising that suppliers and third-party providers offer entry points into critical operations. These groups are pursuing high-profile disruption campaigns, often targeting shared providers that serve multiple airlines or airports.
The stakes are clear, given the capabilities of modern cyber criminals, every single digital supplier in the aviation ecosystem (ranging from software vendors and baggage handlers to IT service providers and maintenance contractors) could represent a potential weak link. As we will demonstrate in this article, a breach at any of these suppliers can ripple across operations, undermining passenger safety, interrupting services, and even create potential systemic economic shocks.
For senior leaders, it is far more than a technical issue; supply chain cyber risk has become a board-level issue. The question is how the UK aviation sector can strengthen third-party risk management (TPRM) and secure its weakest link.
The UK aviation ecosystem has embraced digital transformation at speed, increasing both efficiency and interconnection. Airlines now rely on cloud-based passenger service systems, airports depend on integrated ground-handling technologies, and companies coordinate critical maintenance work via shared digital platforms.
This interconnectedness has made aviation supply chains essential—but also leaves them more exposed to cyber attacks. Adversaries increasingly exploit suppliers as a shortcut to compromise airlines or airports. By breaching one trusted provider, risks can cascade across an entire sector.
The aviation supply chain is a web of dependencies:
Some suppliers act as single points of failure. For example, a prominent passenger service systems provider supports over 90% of global airlines. A compromise of such an essential provider poses not only a business risk but a systemic threat to the entire industry.
Recent years provide a stark record of how supply chain weaknesses can directly impact aviation security and operations.
These incidents carry consistent themes: operational disruption, direct financial loss, reputational harm, and regulatory scrutiny could result from incidents at suppliers to the sector. They also reveal how attackers can bypass hardened corporate systems by striking the less-protected suppliers that aviation depends on.
Why are third-party risks so persistent in UK aviation? Several structural challenges stand out:
Airlines and airports depend on vast networks that stretch far beyond direct partners and suppliers. Tier-1 suppliers often rely on their own complex webs of Tier-2 and Tier-3 manufacturers, service providers, and subcontractors. This creates chains of dependency where a disruption in one region can quickly ripple across global operations.
The rapid digitalisation of ticketing, ground handling, maintenance, and logistics has increased efficiency but also widened the entry points for attackers. With more systems connected and data flowing between organisations, achieving full visibility across this digital mesh is extremely difficult.
Many operators and suppliers still rely on outdated IT platforms that underpin critical services. These systems are hard to update or replace, leaving them exposed to modern attack techniques. The inability to patch quickly creates long-term vulnerabilities that persist across the sector.
A small number of shared suppliers dominate key aviation functions such as passenger service systems, aircraft maintenance software, and logistics platforms. Incidents at providers like SITA or Sabre demonstrate how the compromise of a single vendor can cause systemic disruption affecting dozens of airlines and airports simultaneously.
Large operators may have dedicated risk teams, but smaller airlines and airports often rely on manual processes and siloed data. Without investment in digital supply chain mapping and analysis, many struggle to achieve meaningful oversight of their extended supplier networks.
Together, these challenges leave aviation organisations with persistent blind spots at a time when regulators are raising the bar on supply chain resilience.
Most TPRM programmes stop at Tier-1 suppliers, but aviation risks extend much deeper. Fourth-, fifth-, or nth-party providers often deliver critical services, cloud hosting, outsourced development, data processing, without the operator even knowing they are in the chain.
This lack of transparency, often described as supply chain opacity, magnifies exposure. For example, an airline may thoroughly assess its primary IT provider, but remain unaware that the provider outsources essential services to a subcontractor in a higher-risk jurisdiction. That subcontractor could become the attacker’s entry point.
The reliance on shared suppliers compounds this problem. If a subcontractor serves multiple airlines or airports, a single breach can spread simultaneously across operators, amplifying operational disruption, regulatory fallout, and reputational damage.
Regulators have recognised these risks and are tightening requirements. UK aviation operators now face rising demands for supply chain visibility, resilience, and demonstrable governance.
Key regulatory drivers include:
These frameworks emphasise continuous monitoring, concentration risk identification, and collective defence approaches. In practice, this means operators must be able to evidence how they identify, monitor, and mitigate systemic supply chain risks, well beyond direct third-party suppliers.
Aviation requires tools that can map dependencies, highlight shared risks, and support collective resilience. Risk Ledger’s collaborative platform delivers on this need.
This ability to visualise shared dependencies and monitor systemic risks is central to protecting aviation’s digital supply chains.
The UK aviation sector faces an undeniable truth: supply chain vulnerabilities are its weakest link. From passenger service systems to maintenance contractors, each supplier represents a potential entry point for attackers, and breaches can ripple across the global industry.
Resilience demands an ecosystem approach. Board-level oversight, regulatory compliance, and collaborative defence must combine to close visibility gaps and address systemic risks.
Solutions like Risk Ledger enable the sector to move beyond reactive compliance. By embedding continuous monitoring, concentration risk analysis, and shared intelligence, aviation can strengthen supply chain security, protect critical operations, and build confidence in an era of escalating cyber threats.
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