Manchester Airports Group (MAG), operator of Manchester Airport, London Stansted Airport and East Midlands Airport, confirmed that a UK airport cyberattack had exposed personal data belonging to about 8.7 million customers, although airport operations, passenger safety and aviation security remained unaffected.

MAG said an unauthorised third party obtained customer information connected to car park, lounge and Fast Track bookings, as well as Wi-Fi registrations at the three airports.

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The compromised information included email addresses, phone numbers, vehicle registration numbers and postcodes.

The majority of the affected data is understood to have been email addresses collected through airport Wi-Fi registrations.

MAG said the incident occurred over the weekend and was discovered on Tuesday.

The group said it moved quickly to contain the threat and has since been working with specialist advisers and relevant authorities.

“Manchester Airports Group has been subject to a cyber security incident by an unauthorised third party,” an MAG spokesperson said.

“We immediately contained the risk and have been working with specialist advisors and taking appropriate steps to protect our customers and systems.”

Despite the scale of the breach, MAG stressed that there had been no disruption to airport operations.

Flights and customer parking services continued normally, while the group said passenger safety and aviation security had not been compromised.

The company also said neither MAG nor the affected system held customers’ bank or payment details, meaning financial information was not among the data accessed in the incident.

The breach nevertheless presents a significant privacy concern for affected customers, particularly because contact details, postcodes and vehicle registration numbers can provide useful information for targeted scams and impersonation attempts.

London Stansted Airport has urged affected customers to remain cautious about unexpected emails, telephone calls or text messages claiming to come from the airport.

Customers have been warned that the airport will not unexpectedly request payment or banking information.

The incident comes amid growing concern over the vulnerability of major British organisations and infrastructure to cyber threats.

The UK experienced a series of high-profile attacks last year involving companies including Jaguar Land Rover, Marks & Spencer, Harrods and the Co-op.

The latest breach is particularly notable because of the number of customers involved, even though the information accessed was largely non-financial and airport systems responsible for flights and aviation security were not affected.

MAG has apologised for the concern caused and said it is continuing to work with authorities and cybersecurity specialists to protect affected customers and strengthen its systems.