European airports grapple with second day of disruption as Collins Aerospace outage disrupts check-in

A cyberattack that disrupted check-in systems at several European airports extended into a second full day Sunday, forcing dozens of cancellations and delays and threatening further disruption at Brussels Airport, which said it had asked airlines to cancel about half of Monday's departures while a U.S.-based software provider works to deliver a secure update.

The disruption began late Friday and hit airports in Berlin, Brussels and London, with disruptions to electronic systems that snarled check-in, printing of boarding passes and bag tags, and the dispatch of luggage. The system involved is from Collins Aerospace, a U.S.-based company that provides software used to manage passenger check-ins, baggage drops and luggage handling. RTX Corp., Collins’ parent company, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Sunday. Authorities and officials stressed that aviation safety and air traffic control were not affected and that there was no immediate indication of a widespread or severe attack; the origin of the incident remained under investigation.

On Sunday, London’s Heathrow and Berlin-Brandenburg airports began showing signs of smoother operations, but Brussels Airport said it still faced significant issues. In a Sunday update, Brussels noted that it had asked airlines to cancel roughly half of the 276 scheduled departures for Monday because Collins Aerospace was not yet able to deliver a new secure version of the check-in system. The airport said cancellations and delays would continue as long as manual check-in remained necessary, while it continued to deploy extra staff and rely on backup processes to keep flights moving.

Across the affected network, the cyberattack appeared to influence only computer systems at check-in desks. Self-service kiosks and online check-in remained available in many locations, and airport staff were pulled onto the problem using alternative laptops and paper-based workarounds. Brussels noted it was able to maintain about 85% of scheduled departures over the weekend thanks to these measures and the ongoing cooperation among airport partners and airlines.

In its statement Saturday, Collins Aerospace said the issue was a “cyber-related disruption” to its software at select airports in Europe and stressed that the problem primarily affected electronic customer check-in and baggage drop rather than other operations, which could be mitigated through manual check-in procedures. Aviation authorities in the European Union reiterated that the incident did not affect overall safety or air traffic control while investigations continued into who was responsible and the scope of the outage.

Travelers were urged to monitor flight statuses and consider using alternative check-in methods or arriving early to airports as systems are restored. Officials cautioned that while the immediate disruption may ease in some hubs, the recovery could extend into the coming days as backup processes are scaled and full software updates are deployed across affected sites.