The aviation industry must move beyond siloed cybersecurity approaches and embrace collective defense mechanisms to counter a rising wave of AI-enabled attacks, according to compliance and safety software provider OneReg. The Auckland-headquartered firm is amplifying a recent warning from ACI Europe Director General Olivier Jankovec, who flagged the growing vulnerability of airport networks to sophisticated digital threats.
Carly Waddleton, Chief Operating Officer and Co-founder at OneReg, argues that decades of piecemeal technology investments have left many airports with highly complex, fragmented IT environments. These legacy systems, she says, are increasingly exposed as artificial intelligence tools become capable of scanning for and exploiting weaknesses at machine speed.
“As AI-enabled threats become capable of identifying and exploiting those weaknesses at unprecedented speed, reducing that complexity is a cybersecurity strategy in its own right,” Waddleton stated. She advocates for consolidating operational processes onto modern, unified platforms with robust security controls, rather than patching together disparate point solutions.
Collective intelligence as a defense multiplier
Waddleton emphasizes that no single airport faces a unique threat profile. “The threats facing airports today are rarely unique to a single organisation,” she noted. By sharing attack patterns and intelligence across airports, airlines, and ground handlers, the industry can learn and adapt more swiftly than attackers. Successful airports will be those that engage in ecosystems combining resilient platforms with shared intelligence and collaborative learning.
This call for collaboration comes as the broader travel industry grapples with similar challenges. The upcoming FIFA World Cup 2026, for instance, is expected to amplify third-party technology risks across the travel ecosystem, as highlighted in a recent analysis of World Cup 2026 cyber threats. Meanwhile, the rise of AI-native operations in hospitality, such as Delonix Group’s autonomous hotel management loop, demonstrates how the sector is simultaneously embracing and defending against intelligent systems.
OneReg, which is expanding its regulatory assurance platform across Australia, the UK, EU, and the Middle East, underscores that a unified approach to cybersecurity is crucial for the industry’s future resilience. The company’s platform aims to streamline compliance and enhance safety by reducing the administrative burden of managing multiple regulatory frameworks.
For airline executives, airport operators, and travel technology vendors, the message is clear: the era of isolated cybersecurity postures is over. As AI-enabled attacks become more frequent and sophisticated, the industry must invest in both technological consolidation and cross-organizational intelligence sharing. Those that fail to adapt risk not only operational disruption but also erosion of passenger trust and regulatory compliance.
