London: Heathrow Airport faced significant delays on Saturday due to a cyber-attack that impacted electronic check-in and baggage systems, leading to widespread disruptions across several major European airports. The technical breach resulted in numerous flights being delayed as airlines grappled with the fallout from the compromised software systems.
According to BBC, the cyber-attack began on Friday night and severely affected operations at Brussels Airport, where passengers were checked in and boarded manually. Berlins Brandenburg Airport also reported longer wait times due to the same issue. British Airways managed to continue operations using a backup system, but most other airlines flying out of Heathrow experienced severe disruptions.
The situation at Heathrow remained critical throughout Saturday, with the airport working to "resolve and recover" from the outage. Although the airport apologized for the delays and emphasized that most flights continued to operate, hundreds of flights faced delays, as confirmed by flight tracker FlightAware. The chaos was compounded by manual check-in processes being adopted at other airports such as Dublin and Cork.
Heathrow passengers described chaotic scenes, with some facing hours-long queues and manual luggage tagging. Lucy Spencer, a passenger at Heathrow's Terminal 4, reported that non-functioning digital boarding passes forced passengers to return to check-in gates. Another passenger, Monazza Aslam, expressed frustration after being stranded on the tarmac for over an hour, missing an onward connection at Doha.
Meanwhile, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander stated she was aware of the incident and was receiving regular updates. EasyJet and Ryanair, operating normally, were unaffected as they do not fly out of Heathrow. However, Brussels Airport anticipated a "large impact on the flight schedule," including potential cancellations and delays, as Eurocontrol advised operators to halve flight schedules to mitigate disruption.
In a separate incident, Dublin Airport's Terminal 2 was briefly evacuated due to a security alert, later confirmed as a precautionary measure following the discovery of suspicious luggage.
Heathrow's disruption underscores vulnerabilities in digital systems across the aviation industry. Analysts pointed out that while suspicions about Kremlin-backed hackers persist, cyber-security experts are cautious about prematurely attributing the attack. Collins Aerospace, the company involved, has not yet issued a statement on the breach.
The incident has sparked calls for greater transparency and investigation, with Liberal Democrats MP Calum Miller urging the government to clarify if the Kremlin was involved, especially in light of recent Russian military activities. As of now, the origins of the cyber-attack remain unknown, though speculation about ransomware or state-sponsored activity continues.