Flights grounded for four hours at Edinburgh Airport due to ‘IT issue’
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.
All flights were grounded at Edinburgh Airport for around four hours on Sunday afternoon and evening due to an IT issue with air-traffic control.
The failure is believed to have begun at about 2.30pm, forcing at least a dozen inbound planes to be diverted to Glasgow, Newcastle and Manchester, from locations including Istanbul, Gran Canaria and Tenerife.
At least 22 flights were cancelled, to destinations including Amsterdam, Cologne and Berlin. Around 5,000 passengers have had flights cancelled or diverted.
In a post on X, Edinburgh Airport said that “no flights are currently taking off or landing” due to an “IT issue with air-traffic control”.
The airport added: “Engineers are working to resolve the issue. Passengers should check their flight status with their airline before travelling to the airport.”
Departures resumed at 6.42pm, with a Ryanair flight to Cork taking off four hours behind schedule. Disruption continued for the rest of the evening and into Monday morning with aircraft, crew and passengers out of position.
The most-delayed plane was a Ryanair flight to Milan Bergamo, which was six-and-a-half hours late and arrived at its destination at 4am.
According to the flight data specialist, Cirium, Edinburgh Airport was expected to see 303 flights on Sunday (152 departing and 151 arriving) – equating to over 50,000 seats.
Edinburgh is Scotland’s busiest airport, handling around 40,000 passengers per day.
A spokesperson for ANSL said of the failure: “We have determined that it related to a new element of our systems at Edinburgh Airport. A full investigation is being conducted to determine the exact cause of this issue.
“Our engineers were working on-site at pace to fix an issue on a new element of one of our systems. Safety is our number one priority, and this time was required to ensure that our systems were operating robustly and effectively before they were brought back to service
“When the problem occurred, the time was taken to ensure that our systems operate robustly and are stable before operations were recommenced. A comprehensive investigation is now under way to ensure this issue does not happen again.”
Many of the passengers affected by cancellations were seeking to connect to intercontinental flights at airports including London Heathrow, Istanbul, Paris and Amsterdam.
The first Monday morning Edinburgh-Paris departure on Air France was cancelled because of the disruption.
Under air passengers’ rights rules, all travellers whose flights are cancelled are entitled to be flown to their final destination as soon as possible, including on a rival carrier, and provided with meals and, if necessary, accommodation, while they wait.
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.
All flights were grounded at Edinburgh Airport for around four hours on Sunday afternoon and evening due to an IT issue with air-traffic control.
The failure is believed to have begun at about 2.30pm, forcing at least a dozen inbound planes to be diverted to Glasgow, Newcastle and Manchester, from locations including Istanbul, Gran Canaria and Tenerife.
At least 22 flights were cancelled, to destinations including Amsterdam, Cologne and Berlin. Around 5,000 passengers have had flights cancelled or diverted.
In a post on X, Edinburgh Airport said that “no flights are currently taking off or landing” due to an “IT issue with air-traffic control”.
The airport added: “Engineers are working to resolve the issue. Passengers should check their flight status with their airline before travelling to the airport.”
Departures resumed at 6.42pm, with a Ryanair flight to Cork taking off four hours behind schedule. Disruption continued for the rest of the evening and into Monday morning with aircraft, crew and passengers out of position.
The most-delayed plane was a Ryanair flight to Milan Bergamo, which was six-and-a-half hours late and arrived at its destination at 4am.
According to the flight data specialist, Cirium, Edinburgh Airport was expected to see 303 flights on Sunday (152 departing and 151 arriving) – equating to over 50,000 seats.
Edinburgh is Scotland’s busiest airport, handling around 40,000 passengers per day.
Air-traffic control at the airport is handled by Air Navigation Solutions Ltd (ANSL). This is a competitor to Nats, the main UK air-traffic control provider, which suffered a nationwide failure of both its main and back-up systems on 28 August 2023.
A spokesperson for ANSL said of the failure: “We have determined that it related to a new element of our systems at Edinburgh Airport. A full investigation is being conducted to determine the exact cause of this issue.
“Our engineers were working on-site at pace to fix an issue on a new element of one of our systems. Safety is our number one priority, and this time was required to ensure that our systems were operating robustly and effectively before they were brought back to service
“When the problem occurred, the time was taken to ensure that our systems operate robustly and are stable before operations were recommenced. A comprehensive investigation is now under way to ensure this issue does not happen again.”
Many of the passengers affected by cancellations were seeking to connect to intercontinental flights at airports including London Heathrow, Istanbul, Paris and Amsterdam.
The first Monday morning Edinburgh-Paris departure on Air France was cancelled because of the disruption.
Under air passengers’ rights rules, all travellers whose flights are cancelled are entitled to be flown to their final destination as soon as possible, including on a rival carrier, and provided with meals and, if necessary, accommodation, while they wait.
Source link
Share This:
admin
Plan the perfect NYC Memorial Day weekend
Pack only what you need and avoid overpacking to streamline the check-in and security screening…
LA’s worst traffic areas and how to avoid them
Consider using alternative routes, such as Sepulveda Boulevard, which runs parallel to the 405 in…
ATR 72’s brake not engaged before it rolled and hit power unit
Investigators are probing an accident at Helsinki in which an ATR 72-500 was damaged after…
Peruvian ministers discuss Gripen acquisition on official visit to Sweden | News
Senior government officials from Peru discussed the possibility of acquiring the latest Gripen E/F fighter…
Luxair on track for initial E195-E2 delivery before year-end
Luxair is confident of commencing initial Embraer 195-E2 operations in January next year, in line…
US government approves $1.85bn F-35 sustainment package for Poland and $861m C-17 support deal for UK RAF
The US government has cleared sustainment packages for Poland’s Lockheed Martin F-35A fighters and the…
UK’s One Air to take first 777F under operating lease
UK-based cargo carrier One Air is introducing its initial Boeing 777 freighter, one of a…
How is aviation tackling its contrails of concern? | Analysis
There is a cruel irony that one of the most visible parts of aviation’s impact…
Why military conversions are big business for executive jet producers | Analysis
With their long-endurance performance, plentiful onboard power and ability to carry a broad variety of…
Industry eyes greener future despite hydrogen adoption delay | Analysis
Any organisation funding the research and technology (R&T) activities necessary for aviation’s future faces a…
How will the UK wield its buying power as defence spending rises? | Analysis
The UK government’s commitment earlier this year to significantly boost defence spending over the coming…
Ground-vibration tests completed on fully-substituted MC-21
United Aircraft has completed ground-vibration testing of the import-substituted Yakovlev MC-21 prototype, moving the twinjet…