Half of all passenger flights departing from Brussels have been canceled until dawn tomorrow due to a cyber attack.

 

Brussels Airport

Half of all passenger flights departing from Brussels have been canceled until dawn tomorrow due to a cyber attack. 

SKeyes, the airline responsible for providing air navigation and air traffic management services in Belgian airspace, announced that airlines operating at Brussels Airport will cancel half of their passenger flights departing from the capital until 4:00 AM tomorrow, Monday (September 22), following a cyber attack that occurred yesterday, Saturday.

Brussels Airport confirmed in a statement, according to the Belgian newspaper Le Soir, today, Sunday, that it had asked airlines to cancel half of their scheduled departures today, to avoid extremely long queues and late flight cancellations.

The Belgian Federal Aviation Ombudsman, Philippe Touid, said the decision was sent to airlines and pilots on Saturday afternoon.

Collins Aerospace said in a brief statement, "We have reported a computer outage to our MUSE software at several airports," adding that the impact is "limited to online customer check-in and baggage drop-off."

The company did not provide further details about the incident or its source.

Brussels Airports stated on its website that the cyberattack occurred Friday evening, noting that it "had a significant impact on flight schedules and will unfortunately lead to delays and cancellations." Check-in and boarding had to be completed manually, leading to long queues.

Collins Aerospace said it is working to resolve the incident "as quickly as possible." The company, which specializes in data processing for the aviation sector and is a subsidiary of the American aerospace and defense group RTX (formerly Raytheon), provides check-in services at 170 airports worldwide, according to its website.

Some 35,000 passengers were expected to arrive at Brussels Airport yesterday, Saturday. So far, nine flights have been canceled, four diverted to Ostend Airport, and 15 flights have been delayed for an hour or more.

For its part, Eurocontrol, the European air traffic control agency, clarified that there are "no restrictions on air traffic control on the European network" as a result of the incident, adding that Brussels Airport has asked airlines to cancel half of their departing flights until 2:00 a.m. GMT tomorrow, Monday.

In turn, Alan Woodward, a cybersecurity expert at the University of Surrey, stated that these attacks targeting service providers "are becoming more frequent because, by compromising a single system, they can potentially target multiple users, including large organizations, as was the case in this case" with the three European airports.

Anita Mendiratta, a tourism and aviation expert who advises the UN tourism agency, emphasized that the solution lies in "avoiding contagion."

Several European airports, including Brussels, London Heathrow, Berlin, and Dublin, were disrupted on Saturday due to a cyberattack on the passenger check-in system, forcing travelers to wait hours before completing the check-in process.

It's worth noting that cyber attacks and internet outages have disrupted air travel around the world in recent years, as the industry increasingly relies on digital systems. Travelers are advised to check the status of their flights before heading to the airport and be aware of any potential delays, as the duration of the disruptions is not yet known.