Agency Report –
Airports in Brussels and Berlin were hit with delays and cancellations on Saturday after a cyberattack affected boarding systems across several European airports.
According to a statement on Brussels Airport’s website, a “service provider for the check-in and boarding systems” was attacked on Friday evening.
At least 10 flights from the Belgian capital have been cancelled and 17 others were delayed by more than one hour, with long queues at check-in.
Only manual check-in and boarding were possible at the airport, with passengers told to check their flight status before travelling and to allow sufficient time at the airport.
The affected company is reportedly the US firm Collins Aerospace, which is active in various areas of aerospace technology.
The company confirmed to dpa that it has “become aware of a cyber-related disruption to our MUSE software in select airports.”
“We are actively working to resolve the issue and restore full functionality to our customers as quickly as possible,” it added. “The impact is limited to electronic customer check-in and baggage drop and can be mitigated with manual check-in operations.”
Germany’s Berlin-Brandenburg Airport (BER) said it was also affected, warning passengers to expect longer waiting times at check-in and boarding, as well as delays to flights.
“We are currently trying to work with paper lists and pencils to tick off and are endeavouring to rectify the situation quickly,” a spokesman said. “That’s why everything is taking longer.”
He was unable to say how long the restrictions would last, although online check-in is working. A crisis team has been set up to respond to the incident.
“The airport itself was not the target of the cyberattack and was only indirectly affected,” the spokesman said. It said the system provider is used at airports across Europe, and that other European airports are also affected.
London Heathrow Airport was among those affected by delays.
In a notice on its website, it said delays could occur as a third-party provider of check-in and boarding systems for several airlines was experiencing “a technical issue.”
Other major German airports were not affected by the cyberattack and were operating as normal on Saturday, apart from a small hub in Münster, which was quickly able to switch to its own IT systems on Friday night.
