Hundreds of thousands of passengers faced flight delays at Heathrow, Brussels, and Berlin airports on Sunday after a cyber-attack hit check-in desk software provided by Collins Aerospace. The attack forced airlines to revert to slower manual check-ins from Friday night, causing significant disruption across European air travel.
Brussels airport asked airlines to cancel half of Monday's departing flights, stating that Collins was "not yet able to deliver a new secure version of the check-in system". The airport confirmed a cyber-attack had taken place. At Heathrow, 90% of over 350 flights were delayed by 15 minutes or more, with an average delay of 34 minutes, though only six cancellations were reported by Sunday afternoon.
In Berlin, 73% of about 200 flights were delayed, while Dublin airport also reported delays. Collins Aerospace, owned by RTX, said it was dealing with a "cyber-related incident" affecting its Muse software used for electronic check-in and baggage drop. The UK's National Cyber Security Centre is working with Collins, airports, and law enforcement to assess the impact.
Airports urged passengers to check flight status before travelling and arrive no earlier than three hours before long-haul flights and two hours before shorter journeys. Heathrow stated that the majority of flights are expected to operate on Monday, while Brussels anticipates continued cancellations.
