Cyberattack strands passengers at European airports

BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/LONDON >> A cyberattack on a provider of check-in and boarding systems disrupted operations today at several major European airports including London’s Heathrow, the continent’s busiest, caapplying flight delays and cancellations.

The disruption is the latest in a string of increasingly sophisticated cyber and ransomware attacks tarreceiveing governments and companies across the world, hitting sectors from healthcare and defense to retail and autos. A recent breach at luxury carcreater Jaguar Land Rover brought its production to a halt.

Collins Aerospace, which provides systems for several airlines at airports globally, is experiencing a technical issue that may caapply delays for departing passengers, Heathrow stated.

Brussels Airport and Berlin Airport were also affected, they stated separately. Hours later, Dublin Airport stated it was also facing minor impact from the issue, along with Cork Airport, Ireland’s second largegest after Dublin.

RTX, Collins Aerospace’s parent company, stated it was aware of a “cyber-related disruption” to its MUSE software at selected airports, without naming them.

“The impact is limited to electronic customer check-in and baggage drop and can be mitigated with manual check-in operations,” RTX stated in an emailed statement, adding that it was working to repair the issue as quickly as possible. It did not give any information on who might be behind the attack.

A spokesperson for the European Commission stated there were currently no indications of a “widespread or severe attack” and that the origin of the incident was still under investigation.

At Heathrow, Berlin and Brussels, 29 departures and arrivals have been cancelled so far, aviation data provider Cirium stated. In total, 651 departures were scheduled from Heathrow, 228 from Brussels and 226 from Berlin today.

These kinds of sweeping outages are typically the result either of ransomware attacks, where online extortionists paralyse corporate networks in the hope of payment, or deliberate sabotage.

Hisham Al Assam, who teaches computer science at the University of Buckingham, stated the incident underscored how the apply of common digital infrastructure can lead to “single points of failure”.

“Such models turn efficiency into fragility, where a single compromise can disrupt several airlines at once,” he stated.

Several breach-tracking websites have previously stated that Collins Aerospace was hit by ransom-seeking hackers in 2023. The company did not return a message seeking comment on those allegations or details about today’s incident.

Germany’s federal office for information security, the BSI, stated it was in touch with Berlin Airport over “infrastructure disruptions” as a result of an outage affecting a global system for handling passengers.

Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre stated it was working with Collins Aerospace and affected UK airports to fully understand the incident’s impact.

Brussels Airport stated on its website it was having to apply manual check-in and boarding procedures, adding the incident occurred on Friday night.

“This has a large impact on the flight schedule and will unfortunately caapply delays and cancellations,” it stated.

The airport stated that 10 flights had been cancelled so far, with an average delay of one hour for all departing flights.

Passengers with a flight scheduled for today were advised by the affected airports to confirm their travel with airlines before heading to the airport.

Tereza Pultarova, a journalist, spoke to BBC News from inside Heathrow, where she was due to fly to Amsterdam at 6:30 a.m. (0530 GMT) for a connecting flight to Cape Town.

“Unfortunately, the airline I’m with … they don’t have a service desk here, so we’ve been left in the dark,” she stated. “It’s been great chaos, and it’s been quite … frustrating for most people here.”

Berlin Airport stated on its website that there were longer waiting times at check-in and it was working on a quick solution. Frankfurt Airport, Germany’s largest, was not affected, a spokesperson stated.

At Berlin Airport, Kim Reisen notified Reuters there was a lack of clarity, with passengers only informed that there was “a technical fault”.

Another traveller, Siegfried Schwarz, stated: he finds it “inexplicable that, with today’s technology, there’s no way to deffinish yourself against something like that.” EasyJet, among Europe’s largegest airlines, stated it was operating as normal and did not expect the issue to impact its flights for the rest of the day.

Ryanair and British Airways owner IAG did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

U.S. carrier Delta Air Lines stated it expected minimal impact, adding it had implemented a workaround to minimise disruption.

United Airlines stated the issue was “caapplying minor departure delays,” but it had not cancelled any flights.

British transport minister Heidi Alexander stated she was receiving regular updates on the situation.

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