An alleged cyberattack on a company managing airline check-in and boarding systems led to significant issues at Europe’s busiest airports on Saturday.
Passengers became stranded at Heathrow, Brussels, and Berlin airports after a reported cyberattack targeted Collins Aerospace, a U.S. aviation company based in North Carolina.
RTX, Collins Aerospace’s parent company, stated to TIME that it was “aware of a cyber-related disruption” to its software within “select airports,” without providing further specifics.
It further added, “We are actively working to resolve the issue and restore full functionality to our customers as quickly as possible.”
Brussels Airport reported that a “cyber attack” on Friday evening targeting “the service provider for the check-in and boarding systems” was impacting several European airports. It noted that only manual check-in and boarding were feasible, and that the incident had “a large impact on the flight schedule and will unfortunately cause delays and cancellations.”
Heathrow Airport, Europe’s busiest, indicated that Collins Aerospace “is experiencing a technical issue that may cause delays for departing passengers.”
Berlin Airport announced via its website that extended waiting times were occurring at check-in “due to a technical issue at a system provider operating across Europe.”
United Airlines stated the problem was “causing minor departure delays,” and Delta projected minimal impact on flights departing from the three affected airports.
Passengers experiencing delays at the airports reported lengthy waits and indicated they had received limited information about the reported attack.
This is an evolving story.