Hostels operator Safestay is planning to double its portfolio across Europe over the next few years, according to a report in The Times.

Chairman Larry Lipman is reported as saying the company should “easily be able to double over the medium term, which is about three years”.

Currently it runs 20 hostels across Europe, including in the UK where it owns and is responsible for the freehold of five hostels. It also has one freehold hostel in Italy and five in Spain while the rest are run on a leasehold basis.

The company is already reaching out to potential hostel operators via a franchise offer. Lipman was quoted as saying: “They give us the chance to secure other sites without the need for big fistfuls of dollars.

“If we can veer away from buying the buildings we can get more flags in the ground and a larger revenue stream without a capital requirement.”

Although Europe was still the group’s “immediate playing field”, Lipman pointed out that “the growth in Asia and potential in the United States is not lost on us”.

The global hostel market is attracting more custom as budget-conscious travellers look to experience different countries within a more sociable group atmosphere than is found in hotels.

The global hostel market is set to be worth around $12.1bn (€11.6bn) by 2033, according to Safestay, quoting Hostel Market Outlook 2023 – 233, Future Market Insights.

JAL said the problem started on Thursday morning when the company’s network connecting internal and external systems began malfunctioning. But airline officials insist that the attack had no impact on flight safety.

The carrier said it was able to identify the cause as an attack intended to overwhelm the network system with massive transmissions of data. Such attacks flood a system or network with traffic until the target cannot respond or crashes.

The attack did not involve a virus or cause any customer data leaks, JAL said. It said that as of late morning, the cyberattack had delayed 24 domestic flights for more than 30 minutes.

Warnings over vulnerability of Japanese infrastructure

Experts have repeatedly raised concerns about the vulnerability of Japan’s cybersecurity, especially as the country steps up its defence capabilities and works more closely with the United States and other partners with much tighter cyber defences.

Japan has taken steps but experts say more work is needed.

In June, Japan’s space agency said it had suffered a series of cyberattacks since 2023, though sensitive information related to rockets, satellites and defense was not affected.

It was investigating to take preventive measures. Last year, a cyberattack paralysed operations at a container terminal at a port in the city of Nagoya for three days.

JAL’s ticket sales for both domestic and international fights scheduled for departure on Thursday were suspended temporarily but resumed several hours later.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told a regular news conference on Thursday that the transport ministry told JAL to hasten efforts to restore the system and to accommodate affected passengers.

Other Japanese airlines, including ANA Holdings, Skymark and Starflyer, were not affected.

Television footage showed many passengers at Tokyo’s Haneda airport crowded into its terminals as the attack hit the year-end holiday travel season.

Offices will close from this weekend for the New Year holidays, the biggest celebration of the year, when millions of people travel back to their hometowns from the cities.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has announced that a ‘nationwide groundstop’ of all American Airlines flights has been lifted.

Earlier, the FAA reported a technical issue affecting the carrier’s entire system.

The problem has been resolved and the system is running again.

Delays are still expected after the hour-long outage with flight tracker Flightradar24 posting on X that “it will take some time for flights to get back to normal”.

Services are expected to be departing on time by the afternoon.

American Airlines flights to Europe temporarily grounded

The temporary disruption came as millions of people are travelling for the holiday season, including back home to Europe.

American Airlines flies to 15 countries in Europe with destinations including the UK, France, Germany and Italy.

In social media replies to frustrated travellers, the airline said: “Our team is currently working to rectify this. Your continued patience is appreciated.”

The company has now released a statement saying, “A vendor technology issue briefly affected flights this morning”.

“That issue has been resolved and flights have resumed. We sincerely apologize to our customers for the inconvenience this morning,” it continues.

“It’s all hands on deck as our team is working diligently to get customers where they need to go as quickly as possible.”

The FAA’s website confirmed that American Airlines requested a ‘nationwide groundstop’ for its flights, including those operated by its subsidiary airlines.

The timing of the grounding comes at a critical period, as the holiday season is one of the busiest travel periods.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) estimates it will screen 40 million passengers during the holidays, which run until 2 January.