Edinburgh Airport: Flights resume after 'IT issue' halted air traffic - as it happened

We're now ending our live coverage of the flight disruptions at Edinburgh Airport. 

The airport had alerted its passengers at around 9am this morning that no flights would be operating for an unspecified period due to IT issues with the air traffic control provider.

The issue was resolved quickly, however: at 10.39, the airport said that flights had resumed. 

Arrivals and departures were still impacted, though, as planes were delayed and one flight from New York was diverted to Dublin.

Catch up with our news story...

Today's IT issues at Edinburgh Airport came exactly one week after another major IT scare for UK aviation.

Last Friday, Airbus had issued an alert that aircraft from the A320 family - used by numerous airlines - would need a systems update before they can fly again

Analysis of a flight involving an A320 had shown "intense solar radiation may corrupt data critical to the functioning of flight controls".

The next day, the UK Civil Aviation Authority gave the all-clear, however. 

It said UK airlines had worked overnight to carry out the update where needed, assuring the impact to passengers in Britain remained minimal.

You can find our full reporting on this here...

Flights at Edinburgh Airport have resumed after an IT issue with its air traffic control provider.

If you're just joining us now, here's a rundown of what happened:

• Travel was suspended for a time after the issue arose on Friday morning, around 9.00, as some passengers told us. The airport issued a statement at 9.29; 
• Edinburgh Airport said this was due to a "localised" IT issue with the air traffic control provider, which is Air Navigation Solutions;
• It's understood by PA that the issue was not linked to today's Cloudflare outage;
• National Air Traffic Services, which manages most of the UK's airspace, said it was working "closely with the airlines impacted and support as best we can";
• At 10.39, the airport announced on social media that the issue had been resolved. 

The brief IT issues have had an impact on flights to and from Edinburgh Airport.

Flight tracking website Flightradar24 said a Delta Air Lines flight from New York to Edinburgh was diverted to Dublin after going into a holding pattern over the Scottish capital.

It landed there at 9.45 and will continue its journey to its original destination at around 11.22, according to Flightradar24.

The website of Edinburgh Airport shows now that other arriving flights were cancelled or delayed by hours. 

Departing flights were also significantly delayed. The last flight to depart before the suspension of flights was a Loganair flight at 8.40, according to Flightradar24.

Paste BN has spoken to two 19-year-old passengers, Morven McCall and Cody Stevenson, whose flight appeared to be held up over the IT outage.

The young couple were about to fly from Edinburgh to Amsterdam with Easyjet for their first trip away together.

Morven told us:

"We literally just got into the airport and as soon as we walked through the door there was an announcement that it had been cancelled.

"I was ill over the summer and had to cancel two holidays already, this was our first time going away together. We are just gutted and stressed."

We can bring you a bit more on how the situation was perceived on the ground.

A passenger, who was at the airport at the time, told us it was about 9am when they were informed of the situation via the airport's official announcements.

They said:

"The first news was from the airport announcement as we were half way through boarding, saying the airfield was closed due to air-traffic control down. 

"No one knew what was going on. We'd already been delayed a bit before boarding with no reason. I suspect problems started about 9.00."

Another was on board of a plane when they heard the news and spoke to us while waiting for flights to resume:

"We boarded our flight and pushed back on time for 8.45 departure, then sat for a while, before the pilot told us what’s happening.

"He updated us a couple of times, cabin crew are brilliant handing out water etc. and I’m surprised that everyone appears to be upbeat. But then you do wonder how long for, just been told hoping to be in air in 20 minutes."

Flight data shared by tracking website Flightradar24 on social media showed planes previously approaching Edinburgh Airport moving away from it at around quarter to 10.

In the post, Flightradar24 also shared an update from Eurocontrol, which assumed at the time that arrivals would be unavailable between 9.00 and 14.00 UK time.

However, flights have by now resumed, the airport has announced just now, as we reported in the post below this one.

Edinburgh Airport says flights have now resumed following the earlier IT issue.

Here's the full update:

Paste BN understands there is "no current timeframe for recovery".

Edinburgh Airport is the sixth busiest in the UK, and the busiest in Scotland. 

An average of 43,000 passengers per day use the airport, which is served by 37 airlines flying to 155 destinations.

In a response to their first statement on social media, the airport said the issue was "localised", not national.

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