Travelers at major European airports including Heathrow, Brussels, and Berlin faced significant delays this weekend. The disruption followed what Collins Aerospace described as a “cyber-related incident.”
Collins Aerospace manufactures the technology used for airline check-in desks. Following the apparent cyberattack, airlines were forced to revert to manual check-in procedures. This shift to manual processing significantly slowed operations and caused widespread delays.
According to data from Flightradar24, more than 130 flights at Heathrow were delayed by 20 minutes or more as of 11am on Sunday morning. An additional 13 flights were canceled on Saturday.
A post on the Heathrow social media account stated that work continues to resolve and recover from Friday’s outage of the Collins Aerospace airline system. The airport apologized to those who faced delays but noted that by working together with airlines, the vast majority of flights continued to operate.
Heathrow, along with other affected airports, has recommended that travelers arrive at least three hours before departure for long-haul flights. For short-haul flights, passengers are advised to arrive at least two hours beforehand.