The airports of several European countries, including London Heathrow Airport, Brussels Airport in Belgium, Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER) in Germany, said on 20 local time that external service providers of check-in and boarding systems suffered cyber attacks until the evening of the 21st, the attack still affected the operation of some airports.

According to Reuters, the operation of several airports in Europe was blocked due to a cyber attack on Collins Aerospace Company, which provides flight check-in and boarding services for many airlines around the world. Reuters believes that this incident is part of a series of recent hacker attacks against governments and enterprises around the world, and the affected areas cover medical care, defense, retail and automobiles. Not long ago, British luxury car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover was forced to stop production due to hacking.

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) quoted RTX, the parent company of Collins Aerospace, as saying that electronic check-in and baggage check-in services were mainly affected in this incident, but the impact could be mitigated by manual check-in. According to London Heathrow Airport, "technical issues" affected software supplied to several airlines, causing some flight delays. Brussels Airport said that the cyber attack on Friday night caused passengers to manually check in boarding passes and check-in procedures. BER, on the other hand, has a longer waiting time due to this problem. It is unclear how long the BER restrictions will last. In the early hours of the 21st, a message on the airport's website read: "Due to a technical failure, passengers' waiting time will be extended." The airport also advised passengers to use the self-service check-in counter inside the terminal to check in and check their baggage independently. However, passengers in wheelchairs, pushing strollers or carrying bulky luggage can only continue to wait for news of resumption of service at the counter. The accident caused dissatisfaction among many passengers.

A spokesman for the European Commission said it was closely monitoring the cyberattack and coordinating efforts with the European Aviation Safety Organization, the European Network and Information Security Agency, airports and airlines to restore normal operations and provide support to passengers.

According to CBS, it is still unclear who is behind the cyber attack, which may be hackers, criminal organizations or even state actors. The report quoted cybersecurity experts as saying that the aviation industry has become an "increasingly attractive target" for cybercriminals due to its high dependence on shared digital systems. Such attacks are usually launched through the supply chain, using third-party platforms used by multiple airlines and airports at the same time. Once a supplier is breached, the chain reaction may appear immediately and quickly spread across borders, causing widespread interference.

According to Reuters, such large-scale "stop-ups" are usually either hacked to extortion ransom through a paralyzed corporate network or deliberately destroyed. Experts at cybersecurity company Sophos believe the impact of the incident highlights "the vulnerability and interdependence of the digital ecosystem that supports aviation travel", and that not only the aviation, automotive, retail, medical and other industries have been affected by cyber attacks.