Cyberattack causes flight disruptions at major European airports

Airport operations of many European countries including Brussels, Berlin and London’s Heathrow, were hit on Saturday after a cyberattack snarled air traffic and caused delays in flight operations. According to officials, the cyberattack targeted check-in and boarding systems. “We have become aware of a cyber-related disruption to our MUSE software in select airports,” airport service provider Collins Aerospace said.“The impact is limited to electronic customer check-in and baggage drop and can be mitigated with manual check-in operations,” Collins Aerospace added.

Authorities at Berlin’s Brandenburg Airport said a service provider for passenger handling systems was attacked on Friday evening, prompting airport operators to cut off connections to the systems. Europe’s busiest airport, London Heathrow, called it “a technical issue” that affected a service provider for check-in and boarding systems.

According to the aviation watchdog Eurocontrol said airlines had been asked to cancel half their flights to and from the airport between 4:00am GMT on Saturday and 2:00am GMT on Sunday because of the incident. The aviation sector saw a 600 percent increase in cyberattacks from 2024 to 2025, according to a June report by French aerospace company Thales.“From airlines and airports to navigation systems and suppliers, every link in the chain is vulnerable to attack,” the report warned, pointing out that the strategically and economically important sector had become a “prime target” for cyberattacks.