Passengers left stranded at airports for second day as airlines count cost of cyber attack

After yesterday’s cyber attack on software used in airports across the globe, passengers flying to and from Heathrow, Brussels, and Berlin are finding their flights to be severely delayed

A second day of travel chaos has ensued at Heathrow airport following yesterday’s cyberattack on tech firm Collins Aerospace. The American aviation and defence technology company is the external service provider of some European airports’ check-in and boarding systems.

Since hackers targeted the tech firm yesterday, Heathrow airport has been forced into manually processing flights, leading to an abundance of delayed and cancelled journeys. Passengers are experiencing three-hour check in queues and days of waiting around, with Heathrow officials urging holidaymakers to check their flight status and arrive on time.

An official notice on their website reads: “Work continues to resolve and recover from Friday’s outage of a Collins Aerospace airline system that impacted check-in.

“We apologise to those who have faced delays, but by working together with airlines, the vast majority of flights have continued to operate.

“We encourage passengers to check the status of their flight before travelling to Heathrow and to arrive no earlier than three hours for long-haul flights and two hours for short-haul.”

Lucky travellers opting for British Airways flights from Terminal 5 do not appear to be affected by the delays, due to the airline’s back-up system.

Airports in Brussels and Berlin have also been affected by the disruptions, with yesterday seeing half of all their flights cancelled.

Brussels Airport said on Sunday: “As a result of a cyberattack on the external service provider of the check-in and boarding systems, check-in operations at several European airports, including Brussels Airport, are heavily disrupted.

“The service provider is actively working on the issue and trying to resolve the problem as quickly as possible.

“This has a large impact on the flight schedule and will, unfortunately, cause delays and cancellations of flights.”

Berlin Airport’s website also acknowledged that check-in was facing longer waiting times.

Meanwhile, Collins Aerospace are working alongside a National Cyber Security Centre to understand the depth of the attack.

A spokesperson for the air defence company said: ‘We have become aware of a cyber-related disruption to our Muse (multi-user system environment) software in select airports.

“We are actively working to resolve the issue and restore full functionality to our customers as quickly as possible.

“The impact is limited to electronic customer check-in and baggage drop and can be mitigated with manual check-in operations.”

The situation continues to be monitored by the European Commission, with passengers assured that air traffic control and aviation safety are unaffected by the cyber attack.

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