Cairo, Egypt – The Egyptian Ministry of Civil Aviation revealed, on Saturday evening, that a number of flights arriving at major Egyptian airports were affected.
This is a result of the cyber attack that hit several European airports.
The Egyptian Ministry of Civil Aviation issued an official statement. It stated delays in the arrival of limited flights to Cairo International Airport from Heathrow (London), Luton (Ireland), Brussels (Belgium), and Berlin (Germany) airports.
In addition to delays for some foreign airline flights to Hurghada and Sphinx airports.
The Ministry confirmed that Egyptian airline flights were not affected.
She added that she is following the situation moment by moment through the central operations room. This is being done in coordination with international bodies.
The statement explained that the attack led to a temporary disruption in the information technology systems at those airports.
This partly affected take-off traffic, and prompted passengers to check their flight schedules via airline applications.
In urgent directives, the Minister of Civil Aviation, Sameh El-Hafny, ordered strengthening precautionary measures. He also called for raising the level of operational readiness at all Egyptian airports.
He stressed the need to adhere to the highest safety standards. This is to ensure that air traffic is not affected by any potential repercussions.
The Ministry called on passengers traveling on foreign airlines to review their updated timings. She stressed its commitment to dealing quickly with any developments.
Cyber attack
The cyber attack that occurred on Friday night targeted Collins Aerospace. This is an American subsidiary of RTX (formerly Raytheon) and the main supplier of verification and take-off systems at many global airports.
Which led to the disruption of its programming at “selected European airports”.
Affected airports, including Heathrow (more than 80 million passengers annually), Brussels (about 25 million), Berlin (Brandenburg), and Dublin and Cork airports in Ireland, reported delays and cancellations.
It was forced to resort to manual verification and take-off procedures, which affected thousands of passengers.
