In London, Heathrow Airport, one of the world’s busiest, warned on social media that departing passengers might face significant delays.Travelers across Europe faced a weekend of disruption as several prominent airports, including London’s Heathrow, grappled with extensive flight delays. The chaos began Friday evening following a cyberattack that compromised crucial check-in and boarding systems, a problem two affected airports have confirmed.
At least five key travel hubs—Berlin-Brandenburg, Brussels, Dublin, Cork in Ireland, and Heathrow—reported that the technical malfunction was impacting departing passengers, leading to considerable frustration and long queues.
Heathrow, Europe’s busiest airport, and Berlin-Brandenburg, Germany’s third-largest, pointed to Collins Aerospace as the source of the issue. This American firm supplies the check-in and boarding systems used by these and many other airports globally, and the disruption resulted in prolonged waiting times for passengers.
RTX, the corporate parent of Collins Aerospace, issued a statement Saturday acknowledging a “cyber-related disruption” within its systems at various airports. The company assured the public it was working diligently to restore full functionality as quickly as possible, noting that airport staff could mitigate the impact by switching to manual check-in procedures.
The scene at Heathrow’s Terminal 3 departure area was one of controlled pandemonium, with staff using megaphones to guide large crowds of passengers. Many were still waiting to check in for flights scheduled to depart momentarily. By early evening in London, FlightAware, a flight-tracking website, reported an average departure delay of 30 minutes at Heathrow.
In light of the issues, Heathrow advised passengers to arrive no more than three hours before a long-haul flight and two hours before a domestic flight to allow for the increased processing times.
Berlin-Brandenburg Airport clarified that the cyberattack occurred on Friday evening but emphasized that the airport itself was not the direct target of the attack.
Collins Aerospace, an Iowa-based aviation and defense technology business, confirmed that the problem lay within its MUSE software—a passenger-processing system that it states supports approximately 300 airlines across 100 airports worldwide.
“The impact is limited to electronic customer check-in and baggage drop,” RTX reassured, highlighting that the core flight operations remained secure.
FlightAware data by early European evening showed a significant number of delays and cancellations: Berlin-Brandenburg experienced 161 delays and four cancellations; Brussels recorded 229 delays and 20 cancellations; and Heathrow saw 366 delays and 18 cancellations.
Brussels Airport confirmed that only manual check-in and boarding options were available on Saturday. The airport anticipated that this would “heavily impact the flight schedule, causing delays and cancellations” throughout the day.
Ireland’s Dublin Airport, along with Cork Airport (the country’s second-largest), reported “minor impacts.” Dublin Airport registered an average departure delay of 51 minutes and 212 delays by early evening. However, it remains unclear if these delays were solely due to the software issue or also related to a 90-minute evacuation of Terminal 2 for security reasons.
The National Cyber Security Center in Britain released a statement indicating it was collaborating with Collins Aerospace and the Department for Transport to fully understand the scope of the incident. Britain’s transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, also took to social media, confirming her awareness of the situation affecting airline check-in and boarding systems and stating that she was closely monitoring developments.