Flights cancelled and European airport disruptions continue after cyber-attack

More than half of flights out of Brussels Airport have been cancelled as passengers across Europe face disruption due to the fallout from a cyberattack.

Brussels Airport, which has been seemingly the hardest hit by the attack, has asked airlines to cancel nearly 140 of their 276 departing flights scheduled for Monday because a US-based software system provider “is not yet able to deliver a new secure version of the check-in system.”

Other airports impacted by the hack are mostly back to functioning normally, although Heathrow had 66 delayed and 10 cancelled flights on Monday, according to monitoring website FlightAware.

Berlin-Brandenburg also had 82 delays and three cancellations on Monday.

Problems started late on Friday as airports in Berlin, Brussels and London were hit by disruptions to electronic systems that snarled up check-in and sent airline staffers trying options like handwriting boarding passes or using backup laptops.

There was huge disruption in airports across Europe over the weekend. / Credit: AP

Many other European airports were unaffected.

The cyberattack affected the software of Collins Aerospace, whose systems help passengers check in, print boarding passes and bag tags, and dispatch their luggage. The US-based company on Saturday cited a “cyber-related disruption” to its software at “select” airports in Europe.

It was not immediately clear who might be behind the cyberattack.

The European Commission said aviation safety and air traffic control were unaffected.

There was currently no indication of a widespread or severe attack, while the origin of the incident remained under investigation, it added.

On Saturday, RTX Corp, the owners of Collins Aerospace, said in a statement that it was working to resolve the issue: “The impact is limited to electronic customer check-in and baggage drop and can be mitigated with manual check-in operations.”

The cyberattack affected only computer systems at check-in desks, not self-service kiosks, Brussels Airport spokesperson Ihsane Chioua Lekhli said, and teams were turning to alternative backup systems and pulling out laptop computers to help cope with the impact.