BERLIN: Some of Europe’s biggest airports, including the region’s busiest, London’s Heathrow, raced to restore normal operations on Sunday after hackers disrupted automatic check-in systems.

Hackers on Saturday targeted check-in and boarding systems provider Collins Aerospace, owned by RTX, disrupting operations at Heathrow, Berlin Airport and in Brussels, where passengers faced long queues, cancellations and delays.

Disruption had eased significantly by early Sunday despite some continuing delays, according to airport officials and data, while regulators said they were investigating the source of the cyberattack.

Brussels Airport said that 45 out of 257 scheduled departing flights on Sunday were cancelled but operational adjustments had kept waiting times down.

“There are delays between 30 and 90 minutes,” a spokesperson for the airport told Reuters, adding it was not clear yet how much longer disruptions would last.

A passenger flying from Brussels said disruption had been minimal.

“For me, it was business as usual. For those poor souls who didn’t do online check-in or have bags to check, they may be waiting a bit,” he said.

The disruption is the latest in a string of hacks to hit sectors from healthcare to autos. A breach at carmaker Jaguar Land Rover halted production, while another caused Marks & Spencer losses in the hundreds of millions of pounds.

RTX called the incident a “cyber-related disruption” and said it had impacted its MUSE software, which is used by several airlines. RTX was not immediately available for comment on Sunday.

Berlin Brandenburg Airport said on Sunday problems persisted but that it was working with the company to resolve the issue. A manual workaround was in place and there were currently no major delays or cancellations, it added.

Heathrow said early on Sunday that work was continuing to recover from the check-in system outage. It added that “the vast majority of flights have continued to operate”.

An analysis by aviation data provider Cirium said delays at Heathrow were “low”, Berlin had “moderate” delays, while Brussels had “significant” delays, but these were decreasing.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a public address on Sunday asked citizens to stop using foreign-made products and instead use local ones, pushing for a self-reliant campaign when trade ties with the United States have soured.

After US President Donald Trump imposed a 50% tariff on imported Indian goods, Modi has been urging the use of “Swadeshi”, or made-in-India goods. His supporters have started campaigns to boycott American brands including Apple, which are hugely popular in India.

“A lot of products we use daily are foreign-made, we just don’t know … we will have to get rid of them,” Modi said in an address to the nation ahead of Monday’s implementation of widespread consumer tax cuts.

“We should buy products that are made in India,” he added, without naming any country.

India’s population of 1.4 billion is a major market for American consumer goods, often purchased from US online retailer Amazon.com. Over the years, the reach of US brands has expanded deep into smaller towns.

Modi also asked shopkeepers to focus on retailing made-in-India products, arguing that this will boost the country’s economic growth.

In recent weeks, many companies have increased the promotion of local goods.

India’s Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal is expected to visit Washington soon for trade talks, a trip that would take place amid efforts to ease strained bilateral ties.

• Bagram was largest air base in Afghanistan.
• US, Nato troops chaotically pulled in July 2021.
• US has warned of “bad things” if base not returned.

KABUL: An Afghan Taliban government official said Sunday that a deal over Bagram air base was “not possible”, after US President Donald Trump said he wanted the former US base back.

Trump threatened the country Saturday with unspecified punishment, just days after he raised the idea of the US retaking control of the base while on a state visit to the United Kingdom.

“If Afghanistan doesn’t give Bagram Airbase back to those that built it, the United States of America, BAD THINGS ARE GOING TO HAPPEN!!!” the 79-year-old leader wrote on his Truth Social platform.

On Sunday, Fasihuddin Fitrat, Chief of Staff of the Ministry of Defence, said “some people” want to take back the base through a “political deal”.

“Recently, some people have said that they have entered negotiations with Afghanistan for taking back Bagram Air base,” he said in comments broadcast by local media.

“A deal over even an inch of Afghanistan’s soil is not possible. We don’t need it”.

Bagram, the largest air base in Afghanistan, was a linchpin of the US-led war effort against the Taliban, whose government Washington toppled following the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

US and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) troops chaotically pulled out of Bagram in July 2021 as part of a Trump-brokered deal with Taliban insurgents.

The loss of crucial air power saw the Afghan military collapse just weeks later and the Taliban sweep back to power.