Passengers on cancelled flights told to 'go home' by Edinburgh Airport as Microsoft IT outage causes queues

The global IT outage has hit Edinburgh and Manchester Airports in the UK

Passengers impacted by flight cancellations have been told to leave Edinburgh Airport, as staff struggled to cope with the impact of a global IT outage.

Queues of hundreds of people snaked around the terminal building as the airport said the wait for security was more than an hour, while some airlines said all flights would be cancelled. Airlines, train companies, banks and hospitals around the world have all been hit by the outage, which began in the early hours of Friday morning.

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Passengers flying from Edinburgh reported chaos inside and outside the terminal - with some describing the queues as stretching over a kilometre - and the airport warned travellers with booked flights should stay at home unless they had been instructed their flight would definitely depart. Edinburgh appears to be the only airport in Scotland significantly hit by the global outage, with Glasgow and Aberdeen airports saying they had been "largely unaffected".

One passenger, garden designer Tracy McQue, who is travelling to Munich via Heathrow, said she had boarded her plane to London, but had been waiting on the tarmac for two hours.

She said: “Complete chaos at Edinburgh Airport right now. An hour’s queue to check in, another hour get to the security gates, departure boards not working and lots of confused faces.

“Not sure if flights are actually taking off, let’s see if my feet touch German soil tonight.”

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She added: “Some poor folks haven’t made the plane so their suitcases are having to be removed. Doesn’t look like flight to Heathrow will be off anytime soon.”

Another traveller, Stephen Gilhooley, said he had been stuck in a long queue for security.

He wrote on X: “Security chaos at Edinburgh Airport! 50 min wait in a 300m line.”

Alison Mattu said her 16-year-old daughter Priya is travelling to Washington to visit her father but was in “floods of tears” as she worried she might miss her first flight to Dublin.

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She made the connection, but her mother fears she could still miss her transatlantic flight.

She said: “It was chaos. People confused being sent outside all the way to the trams and car park, told (it was a) security issue.

“Panic setting in for those, including my 16-year-old daughter travelling alone to visit her father via Dublin to Dulles, Washington DC, if they missed their flight.

“She ran in floods of tears on the phone to me, distressed and worried sick.

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“Happily, she made her first flight. Who knows about the other people travelling with young babies, elderly and non-English speakers.”

Passengers said departure boards in the airport’s main terminal building had frozen shortly before 7am, while the outage also appeared to trigger a fire alarm.

Another man, Rob Frampton, said Tannoy announcements at the airport sounded “very stressed”. He posted a picture from his phone showing a notification saying his flight to London had departed.

He wrote. “Except it hasn’t departed it’s still at the gate. None of the departure boards functioning.”

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Edinburgh Airport said: “Passengers impacted by cancellations are asked to please leave the airport and contact their airline for more information. Wait times continue to be longer than usual at the airport and our teams are managing this as best they can.”

The statement added: “Passengers should not travel to the airport without first checking the status of their flight with their airline.”

External affairs secretary Angus Robertson said: "Very sorry for everyone impacted by the global IT outage. With major disruption at airports around the world, including Edinburgh, pls check updates from Edinburgh Airport and airlines if you are planning to travel today."

The cause of the outage is unclear, but it is understood to be linked to Microsoft PC operating systems and is thought to be related to an issue at global cyber-security firm Crowdstrike. Microsoft 365 posted on X to say: “We’re investigating an issue impacting users’ ability to access various Microsoft 365 apps and services.”

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