Cyberattack exposes Europe’s fragile aviation infrastructure

Key international aviation hubs across Europe, including London Heathrow and Berlin Brandenburg airports, are still experiencing operational delays.

Heathrow Airport announced early Sunday, September 21, that it is still working to resolve a system outage affecting its air traffic operations.

More than 200,000 passengers travel through Heathrow daily, making it the busiest airport in the UK. In July alone, the airport handled over 7.9 million arriving and departing passengers.

Meanwhile, Berlin Brandenburg Airport reported on its website early Sunday that passengers may experience longer waiting times due to system outages.

A spokesperson for Brussels Airport confirmed that, as a result of the cyberattack, a total of 44 flights were either canceled or rerouted on Sunday. Initially, airlines were asked to cancel half of the 257 scheduled flights for the day, but ultimately 38 flights were canceled and 6 were rerouted.

Cyberattacks and technical disruptions have increasingly shaken the transportation sector in recent years, including the temporary shutdowns of Japanese and U.S. airlines in December 2024, and a suspected sabotage attack on France’s national railway operator in July 2024 ahead of the Paris Olympics.

In the latest cyberattack, which began Friday, airports in Dublin and Cork, Ireland, also reported minor impacts caused by a software issue across Europe.

Dublin Airport issued a statement on X, warning that some flight disruptions may occur throughout the day and advising passengers to contact their airlines directly for updates.