Cyberattack disrupts check-in systems at major European airports

BRUSSELS – Cyber ​​attacks on check-in and boarding systems have damaged air traffic and caused delays at several major European airports, officials said Saturday.

The Brussels Airport reported that the attack meant only manual check-in and boarding were there, an incident that had a “huge impact” on the flight schedule.

“On Friday night, September 19, there was a cyber attack targeting service providers for boarding and boarding systems that affected several European airports, including Brussels Airport,” it said in a statement.

Authorities at Berlin Brandenburg Airport said that on Friday night, the service provider of the passenger handling system was attacked, prompting airport operators to cut off the connection to the system.

London Heathrow Airport, Europe’s busiest, said “technical issues” affect service providers used to check in and boarding systems.

“Collins Aerospace, which provides check-in and check-in systems to several airlines at multiple airports around the world, is experiencing a technical issue that could lead to delays for departure passengers,” Heathrow said in a statement.

The airport advises passengers to check their flight status and apologize for any inconvenience.

Founded in 2018, Collins is an American aviation and defense technology company and a subsidiary of RTX Corp., a Thor Technology.

Collins provides technology that allows passengers to sign in from kiosks, print boarding passes and luggage tags, and dispatch their own luggage.

Collins said it was “aware of network-related disruption” on the Muse (multi-user system environment) software that “select airports” but could still use manual boarding operations.

“We are actively addressing issues and resuming the full functionality of our customers as soon as possible,” it said in a statement. “The impact is limited to electronic customer check-in and luggage, which can be mitigated by manual inspection operations.”