A 16-year-old Edinburgh Airport passenger was left in “floods of tears” fearing she could miss her flight to visit her father in the US due to a global IT outage impacting airlines.
Airport staff have warned passengers to expect security waits of “around one hour” amid major delays.
Travellers have shared their frustrations on social media, with one describing the situation as “complete chaos”.
It is understood Edinburgh is currently the only Scottish airport significantly impacted, however some individual airlines are affected.
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.
She made the connection, but her mother fears she could still miss her transatlantic flight.
Insane lines for broken security @ #Edinburgh airport pic.twitter.com/iFWZwq8ISd
— Alison M (@millermatters) July 19, 2024
She told the PA news agency: “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.
“Happily, she made her first flight. Who knows about the other people travelling with young babies, elderly and non-English speakers.”
However, Ms Mattu said the airport staff were “amazing” at keeping people in the queues updated.
Writing on X, another traveller told of “complete chaos” at Edinburgh.
ℹ️| Update – IT system outage.
Passengers should not travel to the airport without first checking the status of their flight with their airline.
The wait at security is currently around one hour due to the outage and our teams are managing this as best they can.
— Edinburgh Airport (@EDI_Airport) July 19, 2024
Tracy McQue added: “An hours queue to check in, another hour to the security gates, departure boards not working and lots of confused faces. Not sure if flights are actually taking off.”
Edinburgh Airport said on X: “An IT system outage means wait times are longer than usual at the airport.
“This outage is affecting many other businesses, including airports.”
In an update, the airport later said: “Passengers should not travel to the airport without first checking the status of their flight with the airline.
“The wait at security is currently around one hour due to the outage and our teams are managing this as best as they can.”
AGS Airports, which owns and operates Aberdeen and Glasgow airports, said they are “largely unaffected”, but “a small number of airlines have moved to manual check-in and some retailers are only accepting cash payments”.
Meanwhile, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) confirmed some of its systems have also been affected by the outage but it said mitigations have been put in place to avoid any disruption.
A spokesperson said: “NHSGGC has robust contingency planning in place in the event of any system outages.
“We are currently monitoring the situation and while a very small number of systems have been impacted, appropriate mitigations are in place to avoid disruption to services.”
