British holidaymakers are encountering travel chaos at Heathrow after a cyber attack affected check-in and boarding systems at several major European airports.

This morning, passengers at the UK’s largest airport faced long queues after hackers targeted Collins Aerospace, a provider of services to multiple airlines worldwide, on Friday night.

The company disclosed it is ‘experiencing a technical issue which may cause delays for departing passengers’. Despite the attack being ‘limited to electronic customer check-in and baggage drop and can be mitigated with manual check-in operations’, it noted.

Heathrow has cautioned of potential delays and advised travelers to verify their flight status with their airlines before heading out, as several flights were also cancelled.

It remains uncertain who is responsible for the incident, although in recent months, Russian hackers have executed numerous damaging attacks on organizations in both the UK and the US.

The cyber attack has also impacted Brussels and Berlin, with Brussels confirming the cancellation of 10 flights and 17 flights experiencing delays exceeding one hour.

Disgruntled passengers have vented their frustration over the issue, with one person writing on X: ‘Delays at LHR T4, so annoying. Charging £6 drop off, maybe they should improve their services. You just can’t travel smoothly in the UK.’ 

Another woman who arrived at Heathrow Airport this morning for a flight to Thailand was forced to wait three hours to drop her luggage off. 

‘The queues are terrible. It was an absolute skeleton staff. Out of six of the desks there were probably two people,’ she told Sky News. 

‘We were queuing for three hours and literally snaking and shuffling with this skeleton staff on the desk, and nobody was telling us then (what was happening).’

A thrid person told the Daily Mail they had been stuck in Brussels ‘for hours’ after leaving Africa at 4pm on Friday. ‘We are on our 7th gate change, no announcements, no drinks offered. Terrible,’ they added. 

A Heathrow spokesperson said: ‘Collins Aerospace, which provides check-in and boarding systems for several airlines across multiple airports globally, is experiencing a technical issue that may cause delays for departing passengers. 

‘While the provider works to resolve the problem quickly, we advise passengers to check their flight status with their airline before travelling.  Please arrive no earlier than three hours before a long-haul flight or two hours before a domestic flight. 

‘Additional colleagues are available in check-in areas to assist and help minimise disruption. We apologise for any inconvenience.’

EasyJet said it does not expect the issue to impact its flight schedule for the rest of Saturday.

‘We’re aware of an IT system issue affecting a small number of airports. While we are currently operating as normal and do not expect this to impact our flying programme for the remainder of the day, we continue to monitor the situation closely,’ a spokesperson for the London-listed airline said. 

Meanwhile, Brussels Airport said the cyber attack meant that ‘at the moment only manual check-in and boarding is possible’.

‘The service provider is actively working on the issue and trying to resolve the problem as quickly as possible,’ it added in a statement. 

A message on the Berlin Brandenburg Airport adds: ‘Due to a technical issue at a system provider operating across Europe, there are longer waiting times at check-in. We are working on a quick solution.’ 

Frankfurt and Hamburg airports are not affected by the attack, a spokesperson said.

An official from the operations control centre at Zurich Airport also said it had not been impacted. 

Collins Aerospace’s parent company, RTX, said in a statement: ‘We have become aware of a cyber-related disruption to our MUSE software in select airports. 

‘We are actively working to resolve the issue and restore full functionality to our customers as quickly as possible. The impact is limited to electronic customer check-in and baggage drop and can be mitigated with manual check-in operations.