Brussels Airport: European airport asks airlines to cancel nearly half of scheduled departure flights as disruption continues after weekend cyber-attack

Brussels airport in Belgium is asking airlines to cancel nearly half of their flights on Monday. Several of Europe's busiest airports have spent the past few days trying to restore normal operations, after a cyber-attack on Friday disrupted their automatic check-in and boarding software.

Disruption had eased significantly in Berlin and London Heathrow by Sunday, but delays and flight cancellations remained. Berlin Brandenburg Airport said on Sunday some problems persisted but that a manual workaround was in place.

It said: “Occasionally, there are longer waiting times at check-in, boarding, baggage handling and baggage reclaim. Delays to departing flights today are in line with a normal operating day”.

A spokesperson for Brussels Airport said Collins Aerospace had not yet delivered a secure, updated version of the software necessary to restore full functionality, prompting the airport to seek the flight cancellations on Monday. In a statement early on Monday, Collins said it was working with four impacted airports and airline customers, and was in the final stages of completing the updates needed to restore full functionality.

Regional regulators said they were investigating the source of the hacking, the latest in a string of hacks to hit sectors from healthcare to autos. A breach at carmaker Jaguar Land Rover halted production, while another caused Marks & Spencer losses in the hundreds of millions of pounds.