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 18 flights are 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 will continue for the rest of the evening and into Monday morning with aircraft, crew and passengers out of position.
According to the flight data specialist, Cirium, Edinburgh Airport was expected to see 303 flights today (152 departing and 151 arriving) – equating to over 50,000 seats.
In a later update on Sunday afternoon, the airport said engineers are “continuing to work” on the IT issue.
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) – which says it “provides both aerodrome and radar air-traffic control services as well as air traffic engineering services”.
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.
The Independent is seeking more information from Edinburgh Airport and ANSL.
Thousands of passengers are still at the airport waiting for flights to depart to European cities, holiday destinations and long-haul hubs.
Many of the passengers affected by cancellations were seeking to connect to intercontinental flights at airports including London Heathrow, Paris and Amsterdam.
Already, the first Monday morning Edinburgh-Paris departure on Air France has been 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.