Edinburgh Airport asks affected passengers to 'leave the airport’ amid IT outage and flight cancellations

Hundreds of passengers are stranded at the airport, with many waiting more than an hour to get through security. The IT issue, which became known in the early hours of Friday morning, has also led to some airlines cancelling all flights. Trains, banks and hospitals are also being affected. 

Edinburgh Airport is now asking passengers to check their flight details prior to arrival and leave the airport if their flight has been cancelled.

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Writing on social media, Edinburgh Airport said: “Passengers should continue to check their flight status with their airline before travelling to the airport. Anyone whose flight is cancelled is asked to please leave the airport and contact their airline directly.”

In a statement online, an airport spokesperson said: “This system outage is impacting many other businesses, including airports. Our teams are working hard to manage this situation as best they can, and passengers are thanked for their patience and understanding.”

Microsoft said the issue stems from a third-party update from cybersecurity company CrowdStrike. It is understood the technical glitch is affecting Windows operating systems only and Mac and Linux systems are unaffected.

CrowdStrike said they are ‘actively working’ to resolve the issue that they described as ‘a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts.’ They said ‘the issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed’ adding that the outage was not considered a ‘security incident or cyberattack.’