“`html
Heathrow Airport, along with several other European hubs, experienced flight delays on Saturday following a cyberattack targeting an electronic check-in and baggage handling system.
The airport acknowledged that a “technical issue” impacting software utilized by multiple airlines resulted in a number of flight disruptions.
Brussels Airport reported that a cyberattack on Friday night necessitated manual check-in and boarding procedures for passengers. Berlin Brandenburg Airport also reported increased passenger wait times due to the incident.
RTX, the parent company of software provider Collins Aerospace, confirmed it was “aware of a cyber-related disruption” affecting its system at “select airports” and stated it was actively working to resolve the issue.
The company further clarified that “the impact is limited to electronic customer check-in and baggage drop and can be mitigated with manual check-in operations.”
The affected software, known as Muse, enables various airlines to utilize shared check-in desks and boarding gates within an airport, eliminating the need for dedicated infrastructure for each carrier.
Sources indicate that British Airways is operating normally using a backup system, while the majority of other airlines operating from Heathrow have been affected.
A spokesperson for the National Cyber Security Centre stated, “We are working with Collins Aerospace and affected UK airports, alongside Department for Transport and law enforcement colleagues, to fully understand the impact of an incident.”
The European Commission, responsible for managing airspace across Europe, stated it was “closely monitoring the cyber attack.”
A spokesperson added that there was no indication of a “widespread or severe” attack and that the Commission was collaborating with airlines and airports to “restore operations and support passengers.”
FlightAware, a flight tracking service, reported hundreds of flight delays across affected airports on Saturday.
Dublin Airport and Cork Airport reported a “minor impact” from the cyberattack, with some airlines implementing manual check-in procedures.
Lucy Spencer, a passenger, reported waiting in line for over two hours to check in for a Malaysia Airlines flight, with staff manually tagging luggage and processing check-ins over the phone.
“They told us to use the boarding passes on our phone, but when we got to the gates they weren’t working – they’ve now sent us back to the check-in gate,” she told the BBC from Heathrow’s Terminal 4, noting that hundreds of people were queuing.
Another passenger, Monazza Aslam, stated she had been sitting on the tarmac for over an hour “with no idea when we will fly” and had already missed her connecting flight in Doha.
“I’ve been at Heathrow with my elderly parents since 05:00,” she said, adding: “We are hungry and tired.”
Johnny Lal, who was scheduled to fly to Bombay for his mother-in-law’s funeral on Saturday, reported that he and his family would miss their flight.
He told the BBC his mother “can’t walk one step without her [mobility] scooter,” but Heathrow staff had been unable to provide one. “They keep just telling us the systems are down.”
Luke Agger-Joynes observed that, while queues in Terminal 3 were “much larger than normal,” the airline for his US flight and the airport “seem to be prepared and the queues are moving much faster than I feared.”
He added: “They are also calling out specific flights and picking people out of the queue to ensure they don’t miss their flights.”
Heathrow stated that additional staff had been deployed to check-in areas to minimize disruption.
“We advise passengers to check their flight status with their airline before travelling to the airport and arrive no earlier than three hours before a long haul flight or two hours for a domestic flight.”
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander stated she was aware of the incident and was “getting regular updates and monitoring the situation.”
EasyJet and Ryanair, which do not operate out of Heathrow but are among Europe’s largest airlines, reported they were operating as normal.
Brussels Airport indicated a “large impact on the flight schedule,” including cancellations and delays.
Eurocontrol, Europe’s aviation safety organization, requested that airline operators cancel half of their flight schedules to and from Brussels Airport between 04:00 GMT on Saturday and 02:00 on Monday due to the disruption.
In a separate incident, Dublin’s Airport 2 terminal has reopened following a security alert. Suspicious luggage was flagged to Gardaí (Irish police) on Saturday, who evacuated the terminal as a “precautionary measure”.
Travel journalist Simon Calder emphasized that “any disruption is potentially serious” at Heathrow, Europe’s busiest airport, and that “departure control is a really complex business.”
He told the BBC: “These things are all interconnected, so a little bit of a problem in Brussels, in Berlin… people start missing connections, planes and passengers and pilots are not where they are meant to be, and things can get quite a lot worse before they get better.”
Last July, a global IT crash attributed to a faulty software update from cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike caused disruption to aviation, grounding flights across the US.
Analysts at the time highlighted the incident as evidence of the industry’s vulnerability to issues with digital systems.
While unfounded accusations are circulating that this cyber-attack was carried out by Kremlin-sponsored hackers, all major hacks in the past few years have been carried out by criminal gangs more interested in extracting money from their victims.
Extortion gangs have made hundreds of millions of dollars a year by stealing data or using ransomware to cause chaos and extract ransoms in bitcoin from their victims.
It is far too early to know who is behind this attack. Some cyber-security experts suggested this could be a ransomware attack, but note that these can be perpetrated by state-sponsored actors as well.
Collins Aerospace has yet to comment publicly about the nature or origin of the hack.
Many hacking gangs are headquartered in Russia or other former Soviet countries, some of which are thought to have ties to the Russian state.
But there have been plenty of arrests elsewhere, while British and American teenagers are accused of carrying out some recent large cyber-attacks against Las Vegas casinos, M&S, Co-op and Transport for London.
Liberal Democrats MP Calum Miller said the government must make a statement on whether they think the Kremlin is to blame.
He referred to Russian warplanes entering Estonian airspace on Friday, adding “the government needs to urgently establish if Vladimir Putin is now attacking our cyber systems”.
The dispute is over pay in a union campaign for workers to move closer to £15 an hour.
Despite being better known for budget trips to Europe, Stansted has become favoured by the US.
Haden Pentecost was found by colleagues in an aeroplane toilet after taking drugs and stripping.
The cost of a 20 minute pay-as-you-go cycle is almost double the price it used to be.
The new rules involving liquids and gels in passenger’s hand luggage came into effect on Friday.
“`