Two-thirds of flights still delayed at Berlin Airport after cyberattack

Three days after a cyberattack hit IT systems at multiple European airports, two-thirds of flights at BER Airport will be delayed on Monday, September 22. It is still unclear when IT systems will be up and running again.

Check-in problems and delayed flights at BER

Passengers travelling through BER Airport in Berlin-Brandenburg should expect disruption on Monday. Speaking to rbb on Monday morning, an airport spokesperson said that two-thirds of flights scheduled to depart on Monday will be delayed by more than one hour.

Airport staff are expecting around 95.000 passengers on Monday, with many having attended the Berlin Marathon over the weekend. A typical Monday would see between 75.000 and 85.000 travel through the airport.

Passengers are advised to check in online and, when possible, drop their luggage at automated drop-off points. “Marathon runners are asked not to wear their medals around their necks during security checks, but to place them in their bags, to reduce security delays,” a spokesperson told rbb.

Still unclear when IT system will be running again

Problems started on Friday when Collins Aerospace, a subsidiary of the US aerospace and defence company RTX, was hit by a cyberattack. Check-in systems and bag drop machines that use the system shut down.

Employees have since been processing check-ins and bag drops manually, with pen and paper. Delays and cancellations continued over Saturday and Sunday, with Brussels, Dublin and London Heathrow among the other worst-affected airports.

While a Brussels Airport spokesperson said that RTX was “actively working on the issue”, a BER spokesperson told the BBC on Monday morning that there was still no sign of when check-ins would resume as normal.

The European Commission has said that it is “closely monitoring the cyberattack” but that it did not appear to be “widespread or severe”. Cyberattacks have become increasingly common in Europe and Germany in recent months. 

According to a survey recently published by Bitkom, cyber attacks have cost the German economy 300 billion euros in the past year. Half of the companies involved in the survey traced cyberattacks as having come from Russia or China, while a quarter came from the US or other EU countries.