Cyberattack Slows Check-Ins and Threatens Delays at European Airports

Europe|Cyberattack Slows Check-Ins and Threatens Delays at European Airports

Flight delays were expected in at least three European travel hubs on Saturday after technical problems with check-in systems. The cause was a cyberattack, according to one of the airports.

Berlin-Brandenburg Airport, Brussels Airport and Heathrow Airport in London said that the technical issue was affecting departing passengers and was likely to cause delays.

Heathrow Airport said the problem was with Collins Aerospace, an American company that provides check-in and boarding systems for it and other airports.

RTX, the company’s corporate parent, said in a statement on Saturday that there was “cyber-related disruption” in its systems at some airports and that it was working to restore “full functionality to our customers as quickly as possible.” It added that airport staff could work around the issue by switching to manual check-ins.

Collins, an aviation and defense technology business based in Iowa, said that the problem was in its MUSE software, a passenger processing system. The system supports around 300 airlines at 100 airports, according to its website.

“The impact is limited to electronic customer check-in and baggage drop,” RTX said.

FlightAware, a flight tracking website, said that there had been 59 delays and two cancellations at Berlin-Brandenburg, 97 delays and three cancellations at Brussels and 136 delays and five cancellations at Heathrow as of around midday in Europe. It was unclear whether they were caused by the technical issue.

In the departure area of Heathrow’s Terminal 3, staff members used megaphones to shepherd crowds of passengers waiting for their delayed flights in the departures area. Some passengers were still waiting to check in for flights scheduled to take off within minutes.

Brussels Airport, the city’s main international hub, said that the technical issue had been caused by a cyberattack on Friday evening on an external provider, which it did not name.

Only manual check-in and boarding were available on Saturday morning, the airport said. The airport expected the issue to “heavily impact the flight schedule causing delays and cancellations.”

Berlin Brandenburg Airport, Germany’s third largest, said on its website that there had been a “technical issue at a system provider operating across Europe,” causing longer waiting times at check-in.

Nazaneen Ghaffar contributed reporting.