Passengers faced further delays and disruptions to their travel plans at airports in London, Brussels and Berlin on Sunday. An alleged cyber-attack on check-in software has caused chaos across European travel hubs, including at London Heathrow.
Airlines had to register passengers on to flights manually from Friday night, after Collins Aerospace was allegedly targeted by hackers. The company provides software for check-in procedures to various airline companies across the world. Passengers were urged by airlines to check the status of their flights before heading to the airport.
They were asked not to arrive earlier than three hours before departure on long-haul flights and two hours on shorter flights.
Officials from Collins Aerospace said on Saturday they were dealing with a “cyber-related incident”.
If confirmed as being such, then this would be just the latest in a series of hacks that have hit major companies in the least few months.
Production at Jaguar Land Rover – the UK’s biggest automotive employer – has been at a standstill for three weeks due to a cyber attack. The British retailers Marks & Spencer and the Co-op were also hit by separate cyber-related incidents earlier this year.
More than 130 flights had experienced delays of 20 minutes or more at Heathrow by 11am on Sunday morning, according to flight data company FlightRadar24. Thirteen flights were cancelled on Saturday, while hundreds of flights were delayed.
A spokesperson for the London airport said the “underlying problem” was out of their control, but added that management had drafted in extra staff to help deal with the disruption.
“Work continues to resolve and recover from Friday’s outage of a Collins Aerospace airline system that impacted check-in,” Heathrow said in a statement.
“We apologise to those who have faced delays, but by working together with airlines, the vast majority of flights have continued to operate.”
In Brussels, every one of more than 80 flights by midday on Sunday had been delayed at the airport at Zaventem, one of two serving the Belgian capital. While in Berlin more than 70 flights had been delayed by midday, although some had left on time.