Heathrow disruption continues after cyber attack grounds European flights for second day: Live updates

Cybersecurity expert Vykintas Maknickas, who is CEO of NordVPN’s travel eSIM app Saily, said Friday’s cyber attack is a “prime example” of risks facing the industry because of their reliance on digital systems.

“This recent cyberattack highlights the increasing vulnerabilities within the aviation sector as airports and airlines continue to rely on interconnected systems for operations,” he said.

“As we’ve seen with the disruptions at major airports, the impact of a cyberattack on critical infrastructure can be profound, affecting everything from check-ins to baggage handling.”

He added the attack is a “prime example of the supply-chain risks facing the aviation industry”.

“Many airports, including those affected in this incident, rely on the same third-party systems for passenger handling. While this approach boosts operational efficiency, it significantly reduces resilience,” he explained. “A single cyberattack on one vendor can quickly escalate into widespread disruptions across multiple airports, as seen with the delays and cancellations at major European hubs like Heathrow, Brussels, and Berlin.”

Simon Calder has been looking at the situation on Sunday…

More than 50 flights have been cancelled at Brussels airport on Sunday following Friday night’s cyber attack on check-in and baggage systems.

Disruption also continues at London Heathrow and Berlin.

Fifty-four arrivals and departures at Brussels are grounded. The Belgian national carrier has cancelled 18 flights, including to and from Heathrow.

Next worst affected is easyJet, which has grounded evening departures and arrivals serving Milan, Rome and Nice. KLM, Royal Air Maroc and Vueling have also cancelled multiple flights.

At Heathrow, departures of delayed flights on Saturday night continued well beyond midnight. Overnight services on Qatar Airways to Doha, Etihad to Abu Dhabi and Malaysian Airlines to Kuala Lumpur took off two hours late or more, jeopardising onward connections.

Sunday cancellations at Heathrow total 10 so far, of which four are British Airways to and from Berlin and two on BA serving Brussels. Lufthansa has also grounded a round trip from Frankfurt. Aer Lingus has dropped a return flight from Dublin, when an evacuation of Terminal 2 due to a security scare caused chaos on Saturday afternoon.

Six flights at Berlin are cancelled, four of them on British Airways.

It is still unclear what exactly was behind Friday’s cyber attack on Collins Aerospace that has left several major European airports in chaos.

The European Commission said it is “closely monitoring” the situation, but added current signs “do not indicate a widespread or severe attack”.

On Saturday, the Lib Dems said the government should “immediately” make a statement on whether Russian involvement is suspected. But so far, transport secretary Heidi Alexander has simply said she is “monitoring the situation”.

Late last night, London Heathrow airport said work is ongoing to deal with the impact of a cyber attack on Friday night.

“Work continues to resolve and recover from Friday’s outage of a Collins Aerospace airline system that impacted check-in,” the airport wrote on X.

“We apologise to those who have faced delays, but by working together with airlines, the vast majority of flights have continued to operate.

“We encourage passengers to check the status of their flight before travelling to Heathrow and to arrive no earlier than three hours for long-haul flights and two hours for short-haul.”

Passengers are facing another day of disruption at several European airports after an alleged cyber attack targeted a service provider for check-in and boarding systems.

Brussels airport says on its website that “difficult airport operations” are set to continue into Sunday as a result of Friday night’s cyber attack.

“This has a large impact on the flight schedule and unfortunately causes delays and cancellations of flights,” the airport’s website reads.

Thousands of travellers have faced major flight disruption and cancellations after a cyberattack wreaked havoc on systems at airports across Europe.

Heathrow, Brussels, and Berlin airports are among those impacted by the attack on Collins Aerospace, a company that provides check-in and baggage drop systems for major transport hubs, with dozens of flights cancelled across the three sites.

Huge, hours-long queues were reported as flights to key travel destinations, including Amsterdam, Lisbon, and Paris, were hit by delays and cancellations. Passengers at Heathrow and Brussels were warned to check their flight status with their airline before heading to the airport.

Our reporter Nicole Wotton-Cane reports alongside travel correspondent Simon Calder:

The European Commission has said it is “closely monitoring” a cyber attack that caused major disruption at several international airports across Europe – including Heathrow.

Berlin and Brussels airports are also affected by the attack which targeted a technical partner, Collins Aerospace.

“The Commission is closely monitoring the cyber attack that has disrupted airline check-in and boarding systems for several airlines across multiple airports globally,” a spokesperson for the European Commission, which takes part in managing airspace across Europe, said on Saturday.

“While passengers are facing disruption, aviation safety and air traffic control remain unaffected.

“The Commission is working closely with EUROCONTROL, ENISA, airports and airlines to restore operations and to support passengers.

“Current signs do not indicate a widespread or severe attack.”

The Government needs to immediately make a statement on whether Russian involvement is suspected in an alleged cyber attack on an airport check-in provider, the Liberal Democrats have said.

Lib Dem foreign affairs spokesperson Calum Miller said: “After the flagrant violation of Estonian airspace, the Government needs to urgently establish if Vladimir Putin is now attacking our cyber systems.

“If the Kremlin is behind this attack, causing chaos at our busiest airport, we need to be firm in our response.”

UK security chiefs are “working with” Collins Aerospace and affected airports following today’s cyber attack.

A National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) spokesperson said: “We are working with Collins Aerospace and affected UK airports, alongside Department for Transport and law enforcement colleagues, to fully understand the impact of an incident.

“All organisations are urged to make use of the NCSC’s free guidance, services and tools to help reduce the chances of a cyber attack and bolster their resilience in the face of online threats.”

The incident is the latest in a series that have affected UK airports since the start of the year.

Thousands of passengers trying to fly both in and out of the country faced major disruption on Wednesday July 30 after air traffic control (ATC) provider Nats was hit by a technical glitch.

More than 150 flights – 84 departures and 71 arrivals – were cancelled in airports across the UK, with the highest number of cancellations at London’s Heathrow Airport.

A number of inbound flights were also diverted to European cities as a result of the glitch, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.

Passengers at Stansted Airport also faced long delays and disruption on Sunday May 11 after an IT glitch caused some of the airport’s systems to fail.

The malfunction affected check-in, baggage, and security, with engineers investigating the source of the IT problem saying it may have been related to the systems’ internet access.

On Friday March 21, more than 270,000 air passenger journeys were disrupted by Heathrow airport’s closure following a fire at a nearby electrical substation.

Some 234,000 passengers booked to fly to or from Heathrow that day had their flight cancelled, diverted or delayed when the airport suffered a power outage because of a blaze at the substation in Hayes, aviation industry statistics seen by the PA news agency have showed.

No flights were permitted at the airport on that day until around 6pm.

A further 36,500 people hoping to travel the following day were affected when 74 flights, 6.1% of the total scheduled, were cancelled.