Following technical issues with check-in systems that two airports attributed to a cyberattack on Friday evening, flights were delayed on Saturday in a number of European travel hubs, including the busiest airport on the continent, Heathrow Airport near London.
Throughout the day, the delays had persisted and stretched far. At least five airports reported that the technical problem was impacting travelers leaving, including Heathrow, Dublin and Cork in Ireland, Brussels, and Berlin-Brandenburg.
Longer wait times for travelers were attributed to Collins Aerospace, an American company that supplies check-in and boarding equipment at Heathrow and Berlin-Brandenburg, Germany's third-largest airport.
The corporate parent of the business, RTX, said in a statement on Saturday that it was attempting to get "full functionality to our customers as quickly as possible" after a "cyber-related disruption" occurred in several airports' systems. It further stated that airport employees might use manual check-ins to get around the problem.
Employees at Heathrow's Terminal 3 employed megaphones to manage throngs of people waiting for their delayed planes in the departures area. Some passengers were still waiting to check in on Saturday morning for planes that were supposed to depart in a few minutes. FlightAware, a website that tracks flights, reported that as of early evening in London, the airport was still causing an average delay of 34 minutes for departures.
Heathrow advised travelers to arrive no earlier than two hours prior to a domestic flight or three hours prior to a long-haul trip.
According to a statement from Berlin-Brandenburg, the cyberattack happened on Friday night and did not specifically target the airport. As of Saturday night, the software problem has not interfered with air traffic control in the European network, according to Eurocontrol, the main air traffic control manager for the continent, which is headquartered in Brussels.
Collins is an Iowa-based company that specializes in defense and aviation technology. their corporate parent company, RTX, claimed that the issue was with their MUSE software, a system for processing passengers that, according to Collins, serves about 300 airlines at 100 airports.
"Only electronic customer check-in and baggage drop are affected," RTX stated.
As of early evening in Europe, according to FlightAware, there were 202 delays and two cancellations at Berlin-Brandenburg, 254 delays and 21 cancellations at Brussels, and 445 delays and 18 cancellations at Heathrow.
Both arrivals and departures were affected by the cancellations and delays. About 40% of the delays at Heathrow, 44% at Brussels, and 35% at Berlin-Brandenburg were caused by flights arriving in European cities.
According to the Brussels Airport, the cyberattack "heavily disrupted" its check-in operations, resulting in delays and cancellations and requiring it to rely on manual check-in and boarding procedures. The interruption has prompted the airport to request that airline operators cancel half of all leaving flights until Monday at 4 a.m. Belgium time, according to Eurocontrol.
On Saturday evening, Eurocontrol stated that it "is coordinating with all operational partners for any necessary actions to manage the situation and continues to actively monitor developments."
Dublin Airport and Cork Airport, Ireland's second-largest airport after Dublin, reported "minor impacts." According to FlightAware, as of early evening in Ireland, Dublin experienced 272 delays and an average departure delay of one hour and seven minutes. It is unclear if the 90-minute Terminal 2 evacuation that was carried out as a security measure or the software problem was the main reason of the delays.
In a statement released on Saturday, the British National Cyber Security Center said it was collaborating with the Department for Transport and Collins Aerospace to comprehend the consequences of the cyber breach. Britain's transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, posted on social media that she was keeping an eye on the situation after becoming "aware of an incident affecting airline check-in and boarding."
Major airports and organizations have been the target of numerous hacks, this disruption being the most recent. A cyberattack on Japan Airlines in December of last year resulted in delays for both local and international flights. According to Columbia University, a "hacktivist" carried out a sophisticated cyberattack in June that knocked down the university's computer systems extensively and seized student data, ostensibly for political purposes.
In recent years, other American cities have also been attacked, such as St. Paul, Minnesota, in July. To aid in the city's response, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz called in the state's National Guard.
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