Brussels (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Several major airports across Europe, including Heathrow in London, Brussels, and Berlin, have been hit with flight delays and cancellations on Saturday due to a cyberattack on a service provider for check-in and boarding systems.
Major airports in Europe are facing disruption following a cyber attack on a third-party system. Brussels and Berlin have also been affected by the attack, which has impacted several airlines that operate globally.
How did the cyberattack disrupt European air travel today?
Collins Aerospace, which equips check-in and boarding systems to several airlines at multiple airports worldwide, is facing a technical problem that may lead to delays for departing passengers, according to London’s Heathrow Airport, which had previously issued a warning about delays.
Brussels Airport has confirmed that the attack has brought automated systems to a standstill, forcing manual check-in and boarding procedures.
“This has a large impact on the flight schedule and will, unfortunately, cause delays and cancellations of flights…The service provider is actively working on the issue and trying to resolve the problem as quickly as possible.”
London Heathrow and Berlin airports have also confirmed the attack is causing disruption to their flights. Passengers are advised to check with their airlines before travelling to the airport on Saturday.
“Due to a technical issue at a system provider operating across Europe, there are longer waiting times at check-in. We are working on a quick solution,”
Berlin Airport said in a banner on its website.
Who is Collins Aerospace, and what role do they play?
Disruption to major European airports on Saturday is connected to a cyber attack on a single firm, Collins Aerospace.
Based in the US, this aviation and defence firm is held by its parent business RTX, which also owns aerospace business Pratt & Whitney and defence contractors Raytheon. Collins Aerospace supplies check-in and boarding systems to several airlines at multiple airports worldwide, including those affected today.
How does this incident compare to the 2024 outage?
In July 2024, a similar incident occurred when a malfunctioning software upgrade from the cybersecurity company CrowdStrike caused a global IT failure. The IT failure resulted in significant disruption to critical systems across the world, which caused thousands of flights to be grounded and impacted numerous locations such as airports, banks, and media outlets.
The incident caused over 1,000 flight cancellations globally and resulted in operational failures at airports such as Heathrow, Luton, London Gatwick, Manchester, Berlin Brandenburg, Amsterdam Schiphol, Brussels, and many others worldwide
Brussels Morning is a daily online newspaper based in Belgium. BM publishes unique and independent coverage on international and European affairs. With a Europe-wide perspective, BM covers policies and politics of the EU, significant Member State developments, and looks at the international agenda with a European perspective.
