EU says ransomware attack responsible for airport check-in disruptions
Posted on: Sep 21, 2025 23:46 IST | Posted by: Cbc
airdrome disruptions that unnatural machine-controlled check-in systems in recent years were caused by a ransomware assail, the EU's cybersecurity agency said on Monday, highlighting the growing risks of such attacks to critical infrastructure and industries.
Several of Europe's biggest airports still faced disruptions on Monday after hackers knocked out automated check-in systems provided by Collins Aerospace, owned by RTX, affecting dozens of flights and thousands of passengers since Friday.
"Law enforcement is involved to investigate" malicious software that locks up data until the victim pays to have access restored, the ENISA agency said in a statement, without saying where the ransomware attack originated from.
Collins Aerospace said on Monday that it was working with the affected airports, including Brussels and London Heathrow, Europe's busiest airport, and was in the final stages of completing updates to help restore full functionality.
Berlin airport, which was facing higher passenger numbers than usual on Monday due to the Berlin Marathon, still did not have its check-in systems restored and reported delays of over an hour for departures.
One passenger described the boarding process as akin to the early decades of commercial air travel, with handwritten boarding passes.
Brussels Airport was using iPads and laptops to check passengers in online. Of roughly 550 departing and arriving flights, 60 had to be cancelled on Monday, it said.
Dublin Airport was experiencing "minimal impact" and had some manual processes in place.
Starting late Friday, airports in Berlin, Brussels and London were hit by disruptions to electronic systems that snarled up the check-in process and forced airline staffers to try measures such as handwriting boarding passes or using backup laptops. Many other European airports were unaffected.
Collins Aerospace systems help passengers check in, print boarding passes and bag tags, and dispatch their luggage.
On Saturday, the aviation and defence technology company said in a statement that it was working to resolve the issue: "The impact is limited to electronic customer check-in and baggage drop and can be mitigated with manual check-in operations."
Brussels Airport said it nonetheless was able to maintain 85 per cent of scheduled departures over the weekend, thanks to the deployment of extra staff by airport partners "and the fact that self bag drop and online check-in are still operational."
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