Air travel at Scotland's busiest airport was thrown into disarray on Friday morning after a significant IT failure disrupted its air traffic control systems.
Friday Morning Travel Suspension
The disruption began in the morning of Friday 05 December 2025, leading to a temporary but complete suspension of all flights. The problem originated with the airport's air traffic control provider, Air Navigation Solutions (ANS). Airport officials confirmed that teams worked urgently to address the technical fault and restore normal operations.
Resolution and Passenger Communication
By approximately 10.45am, the issue had been resolved. An Edinburgh Airport spokesman issued a statement announcing that flights had resumed. The statement thanked passengers for their "patience and understanding" during the unexpected halt to travel. The airport emphasised that resolving the situation "as soon as possible" had been the top priority for all teams involved.
Authorities were quick to clarify that the incident was not connected to the wider Cloudflare outage that has affected other online services, confirming it was a localised technical fault.
Scale and Context of the Disruption
The incident impacted one of the UK's major travel hubs. Edinburgh Airport is the sixth busiest in the UK and the busiest in Scotland, handling a substantial volume of passenger traffic. Official figures show that the airport was used by 15.8 million passengers in the previous year, underscoring the scale of the disruption caused by the IT failure.
During the outage, Nats, the organisation responsible for managing most of the UK's airspace, stated it would "work closely with the airlines impacted and support as best we can". This coordination was crucial for managing the knock-on effects of the grounding, which likely caused delays and cancellations across the network.
The swift resolution prevented a more prolonged crisis, but the event highlights the critical reliance of modern air travel on robust and resilient IT systems. Passengers are advised to check directly with their airlines for the latest information on specific flight schedules following the morning's disruptions.
