Europe’s busiest airports are currently in the grips of a prolonged crisis, now entering its fourth day, triggered by a severe cyberattack. This ransomware incident has thrown check-in and boarding systems into disarray, leading to widespread flight delays and cancellations across major hubs like Brussels, Berlin-Brandenburg, Dublin, and London Heathrow.
The European Union Agency for Cybersecurity has officially confirmed the nature of the attack, though details regarding the perpetrators and their motives are still under investigation. The ongoing disruption highlights the vulnerability of modern air travel infrastructure to digital threats.
Brussels Airport has been particularly hard hit, with a significant number of flights still canceled or delayed on Monday. Airport officials, including spokeswoman Ihsane Chioua Lekhli, indicated that while most flights aimed to operate, the reliance on manual check-in processes continues to cause bottlenecks and uncertainty. The timeline for fully restoring electronic systems remains unclear.
The root cause has been traced to Collins Aerospace, an American firm providing passenger processing systems to hundreds of airports globally. Its parent company, RTX, acknowledged the system interference and stated it is working tirelessly to restore full functionality. In the meantime, manual operations serve as a stop-gap measure to keep some flights moving. Even major players like Heathrow reported that while most flights were running, passengers should anticipate longer waits for check-in and boarding.
This incident serves as a stark reminder of recent high-profile cyberattacks that have plagued various sectors. From Japan Airlines experiencing flight delays due to a cyber breach last December, to Columbia University suffering a sophisticated hacktivist attack in June that compromised student data and system functionality, the threat of cyber warfare continues to evolve and impact daily life significantly.