Edinburgh Airport disruption: Air traffic control faults strike again

Travelling by air is prone to myriad potential disruption factors, from aircraft faults to bad weather.

However, a series of air traffic control (ATC) problems have recently had the greatest impact.

In the latest glitch on Friday morning, all flights in and out of Edinburgh Airport - by far Scotland’s busiest - were suspended due to an “technical issue” at Air Navigation Solutions (ANS), the firm which provides its ATC.

Flights resumed shortly before 10.40am.

The fault appeared to be localised to the east coast airport, with Glasgow and Aberdeen, the country’s other main air gateways, unaffected.

Nats, the now-privatised former National Air Traffic Services, which manages most of the UK’s airspace, said it would “work closely with the airlines impacted and support as best we can”.

A spokesperson for Gatwick-based ANS said: “This morning, a technical issue affected one of our systems at Edinburgh Airport and it impacted flight operations.

“Our technical capability has now been reinstated and flights have since resumed.

“Safety is our number one priority, and our engineers worked at pace to restore system capability as quickly as possible.

“We regret the inconvenience that this is causing and thank everyone for their patience.”

Dr Junade AIi, a software engineer, cyber expert and Fellow at the Institution of Engineering and Technology, said: "At this point, there is no indication this is as a result of malicious activity.

“At present, this seems to be a localised issue to Edinburgh Airport and air traffic appears to be resuming now, but some knock-on disruption may remain.

“Air traffic control systems are often designed to prioritise safety over keeping air space open, as the public risk appetite for air travel demands high safety requirements, therefore these IT issues can often cause disruption.

“This highlights the ever-present need for resilience in our critical national infrastructure."

The incident happened just four months after Nats itself suffered a technical problem, which affected departures from all UK airports.

The July 30 glitch was caused by a problem at Nats’ control centre near Southampton in Hampshire, which controls airspace across the southern half of the UK. The northern half is controlled from Prestwick in South Ayrshire.

That forced a reduction in the number of aircraft which could fly in the London control area, with four Edinburgh flights cancelled, one diverted and others disrupted.

A Nats spokesperson said: “This was a radar-related issue which was resolved by quickly switching to the back-up system during which time we reduced traffic to ensure safety. There is no evidence that this was cyber related.”

Don’t miss out - subscribe to The Scotsman’s transport newsletter

However, Ryanair - the biggest airline at Edinburgh Airport - called for the resignation of Nats chief executive Martin Rolfe.

Its chief operating officer Neal McMahon said it was “outrageous” that lessons had not been learned from a previous incident two years before.

In that August 2023 fault, another Nats glitch happened when a flight plan was being processed.

It caused disruption to more than 700,000 passengers which continued for several days after flights were grounded at UK airports, costing a total of up to £100 million.

More than 200 flights were cancelled at Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen airports, in what the then UK Transport Secretary Mark Harper said was the worst such incident in nearly a decade.

An independent review of what happened by the UK Civil Aviation Authority, which regulates aviation, recommended that Nats “review its contingency and engineering resource management arrangements”.

Nats said this year it had “submitted evidence of closure to the Civil Aviation Authority [regulator] on all 11 of the recommendations assigned to us” in the report into the 2023 incident.