Hundreds of flights delayed at Heathrow and other airports after apparent cyberattack
Travelers at major European airports including Heathrow, Brussels, and Berlin faced significant delays this weekend following what Collins Aerospace described as a “cyber-related incident.”
Collins Aerospace makes technology for airline check-in desks, so after the apparent cyberattack, airlines were forced to revert to manual check-ins, according to the Guardian. According to data from Flightradar24, more than 130 Heathrow flights had been delayed by 20 minutes or more as of 11am on Sunday morning, with 13 flights canceled on Saturday.
A post on the Heathrow social media account said, “Work continues to resolve and recover from Friday’s outage of a Collins Aerospace airline system that impacted check-in. We apologise to those who have faced delays, but by working together with airlines, the vast majority of flights have continued to operate.”
Heathrow, like other affected airports, has recommended that travelers arrive at least three hours before departure for long-haul flights, and at least two hours beforehand for short-haul flights.