Cyberattack on airline systems causes delays at major European airports

By Necva Tastan Sevinc

ISTANBUL (AA) - A cyberattack on a third-party system provider has caused widespread flight disruptions at several major European airports, including London’s Heathrow plus Brussels and Berlin, authorities said Saturday.

Brussels Airport confirmed at least four flight cancellations on Saturday morning, including departures to Rwanda and Amsterdam, following the Friday night attack, which knocked out automated check-in and boarding systems.

The airport said only manual check-in procedures were available, warning of a “large impact on the flight schedule” with more delays and cancellations expected.

Berlin Airport also warned passengers of “longer wait times than usual” due to the incident.

“We are working on a quick solution,” the airport said in a notice on its website.

London Heathrow likewise warned travelers of delays, citing a “technical issue” at Collins Aerospace, a company that provides check-in and boarding systems to several airlines globally.

“We advise passengers to check their flight status with their airline before travelling,” it said, noting that extra staff had been deployed to assist.

Collins confirmed that the attack targeted its MUSE software, which is used for passenger check-in and baggage drop at select airports, British daily The Independent reported.

“The impact is limited to electronic customer check-in and baggage drop and can be mitigated with manual operations,” the company said in a statement, adding that it was working to restore full functionality “as quickly as possible.”

EasyJet also said its operations remained unaffected despite the disruption.

Authorities in Brussels and Berlin said the duration of the outage remains unclear as efforts continue to resolve the cyber-related disruption.