Scoot apologises for e-mail error

Budget carrier Scoot has apologised for erroneously sending an e-mail meant for passengers on a specific upcoming flight to a large number of past travellers or those with future bookings.

The low-cost arm of Singapore Airlines said in a statement last night: "This erroneous e-mail arose due to human error, and was not a data security or hacking incident.

"Scoot takes this incident very seriously and will conduct an internal review looking into how to further strengthen our internal processes. We have also informed Singapore's Personal Data Protection Commission of the incident and contacted all affected customers with an explanation of what happened."

The e-mail titled "Urgent: Negative Covid-19 certificate required for your flight to Guangzhou" went out shortly after 2pm yesterday, causing alarm and concern among recipients, many of whom took to social media wondering if there had been a data breach or if their personal information had been leaked.

Scoot said the e-mail was meant only for customers booked on Scoot Flight TR100 from Singapore to Guangzhou departing at 5.15am on Sunday, to inform them of new travel requirements for their flight. However, it was "erroneously sent to a distribution list containing customers who have travelled with Scoot in the past, or who have future bookings with Scoot".

The airline did not say how many passengers the e-mail went out to, but some past passengers reported receiving multiple e-mails with booking reference numbers of previous Scoot flights they had travelled on over the past year, or earlier.

The airline said: "Scoot understands the worry and concerns customers would have over the use of their personal information. We have established that no new booking was created. There was also no leak of sensitive personal information; the personal information that was included in the erroneous e-mail was limited to first name and booking confirmation ID, and the erroneous e-mail was sent to the e-mail address associated with the original booking."

Scoot also said it would like to assure customers that no third party was sent an e-mail with their personal information. "However, if they previously made a booking on another party's behalf, they may see the other party's first name in the e-mail instead. No current bookings can be accessed with this information."

It added: "Scoot sincerely apologises to all affected customers."