'Significant' breach: six million Qantas customers compromised in hack

The airline confirmed on July 2 that a cybercriminal targeted a call centre and gained access to a third-party customer servicing platform.

Qantas CEO Vanessa Hudson apologised to customers, saying "we recognise the uncertainty this will cause. Our customers trust us with their personal information and we take that responsibility seriously".

"We are working closely with the Federal Government's National Cyber Security Coordinator, the Australian Cyber Security Centre and independent specialised cyber security experts," she said.

Qantas said the system had been contained and there was no effect on Qantas' operations or the safety of the airline.

"On Monday, we detected unusual activity on a third party platform used by a Qantas airline contact centre. We then took immediate steps and contained the system. We can confirm all Qantas systems remain secure," Qantas said in a statement on July 2.

"There are 6 million customers who have service records in this platform. We are continuing to investigate the proportion of the data that has been stolen, though we expect it will be significant," the statement said.

Customers' names, email addresses, phone numbers, birth dates and frequent flyer numbers were lost in the cyber breach, Qantas said.

Credit card details, personal financial information and passport details were not held in this system and were not breached, the airline said.

"No frequent flyer accounts were compromised nor have passwords, PIN numbers or log in details been accessed," Qantas said.

"While we conduct the investigation, we are putting additional security measures in place to further restrict access and strengthen system monitoring and detection.

"We understand this will be concerning for customers. We are currently contacting customers to make them aware of the incident, apologise and provide details on the support available."

Customers can contact Qantas' dedicated support line on 1800 971 541 or +61 2 8028 0534 and will have access to specialist identity protection advice and resources through this team.