Edinburgh Airport again hit by air traffic control disruption after two wider faults in last two years
Civil Aviation Authority to “keep close to investigation into the root cause”
Edinburgh Airport passengers have suffered their third bout of air traffic control disruption in two years following two incidents which also hit much of the UK.
No flights were able to take off or land from Scotland’s busiest air gateway for more than one hour on Friday morning due to a fault at the company providing its air traffic control service (ATC).
A total of 17 flights were cancelled and 11 diverted, although four of these returned with their passengers.
Air Navigation Solutions (ANS) said there had been a “technical issue”, which the airport said had been localised to the area, with Glasgow and Aberdeen airports confirming they were not affected.
A spokesperson for ANS, which is based at Gatwick, Edinburgh’s sister airport, 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.”
The “outage” happened at 9.17am, with the airport announcing at 10.39am that operations had restarted.
It said: “Flights have now resumed following the IT issue with our air traffic control provider.
“We thank passengers for their patience and understanding.”
At one stage it had been feared that flights would be suspended until 2pm, according to a statement by air traffic control support organisation Eurocontrol.
Among passengers caught up in the disruption was Lucy Boyle, 20, heading to Amsterdam for a long weekend with her friend Cara.
Their 12.30 Easyjet flight was initially delayed and then eventually cancelled with no explanation.
Ms Boyle said: “We’re feeling rubbish and really stressed.
The pair have been re-booked on a flight at 7am on Saturday but expect to lose money they had spent on accommodation.
A spokesperson for the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the aviation regulator, said: “There was a failure within the air traffic control support system, leading the ATC team to immediately stop all departures and arrivals.
“The air traffic engineering team swiftly recovered the situation and airfield operations were allowed to continue. There were some cancelled flights and some passengers experienced delays.
“We have been kept fully informed of the situation in Edinburgh by ANS and will keep close to the subsequent investigation into the root cause.
“We are assured that the operation at Edinburgh remains safe and that appropriate action has been taken and continues to minimise disruption to consumers.”
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."
Rimesh Patel, a member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology and a cyber security consultant, said: '”The UK economy relies heavily on transport infrastructure, whether it's for tourism or transfer of goods and services.
“These are well-established services, just like other national utility providers (water, electricity or gas) with rigorous policies and service architectures in place.
“When local IT issues arise that causes severe disruption, technology leads should look to review their governance, risk and compliance processes to ensure a proactive management approach is in place to pre-empt any disruptions.''
Friday’s incident happened just four months after Nats - the former National Air Traffic Services - which manages most of the UK’s airspace, 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.”
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 CAA recommended that Nats “review its contingency and engineering resource management arrangements”.
Nats said this year it had “submitted evidence of closure to the CAA on all 11 of the recommendations assigned to us” in the report into the 2023 incident.
The CAA told The Scotsman that it expected a further update to be published “in the coming weeks”.
Its spokesperson said that would include “progress on the various recommendations that came out of that incidence”.
Edinburgh Airport is the sixth busiest in the UK, handling a record 15.8 million passengers last year.
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