Scotland’s biggest airport descended into chaos yesterday after its computer systems fell victim to the botched software upgrade.
Hundreds of passengers were forced to queue for hours as computer systems at Edinburgh Airport were crippled because of the world-wide outage.
Amid the chaos – which also hit some local authorities, health services, and even football clubs – the Scottish Government held an emergency meeting to try avert any further impacts.
But Edinburgh’s airport suffered the worst impact, with some passengers left thousands out of pocket because of the mayhem.
Security queues went out of the door, stretching hundreds of yards, with worried travellers beginning to arrive far earlier than usual in a bid to make it to their destinations.
Travellers were forced to queue at Edinburgh Airport as the global IT outage sent systems into meltdown
For hours boarding passes had to be manually checked, departure boards froze and staff were forced to stop accepting incoming flights.
Abraham Takawira, 42, was traveling with partner Yvonne Zisengwe, 41, but amid the world-wide turmoil had their flight cut from the schedule.
Mr Takawira said: ‘We were going to travel to Cologne, Germany, to celebrate my partner’s birthday and our anniversary so when we got here we just saw a long queue of people going through security.
‘But when we went to do the bag drop we were told the flights had been cancelled.’
Outside the airport yesterday he was busily trying to organise other transport to the Germany city, but was struggling to find flights or trains to get them there on time.
Mr Takawira added: ‘We have been set back in excess of £2,000, but it’s going to be more because we are going to need to make plans now, we are going to need to travel from here to maybe Heathrow, get a hotel, all that.
‘The frustration is just a bit too much.’
And Karl Rosevear, 29, had been set to fly to Dublin with AirLingus but missed his flight because of the issues and now faces a bill of hundreds to rebook.
Travelling with wife Amy, 27, he said: ‘We checked our bags in, and then lined up to go through the security check point, and then by the time we got thought the gates and made our way to the gate the flight had already departed.’
Gareth Robertson, of Edinburgh Airport, said it outage hit the airport’s and airlines’ systems in the early hours yesterday. (FRI)
Praising IT staff at the airport for their ‘herculean job’, he said systems were brought back online within about six hours.
Mr Robertson said: ‘Everything we do here is computerised.
‘You get a computerised boarding card and if you can’t do that then you need to get a paper one.
‘And if the system’s down, you can’t print a paper one.
‘Check in relies on this technology and security relies on this technology.’
Amid the botched update payment systems collapsed, forcing Celtic, Hibernian and Hearts to postpone ticket sales.
And Scottish Rugby also delayed season ticket sales amid the IT issue.
Local authorities did not escape unscathed, either, with some councils reporting outages.
Falkirk Council’s contact centre was affected for a short period, being restored by 9.30am, and North Lanarkshire Council warned of ‘potential issues with card payments for some services which are operated by an external provider’.
Amy and Karl Rosevear were among those affected by the chaos at Edinburgh airport
And Argyll and Bute council said third party systems had been affected, including online access to council tax accounts and parking fine payments through the website.
Yesterday amid the chaos Holyrood called the Scottish Government Resilience Room – its equivalent to the UK-wide Cobra – to ‘assess any potential impacts across Scotland’.
A spokesman said: ‘The Scottish Government’s IT systems are functioning normally.
‘There has minimal impact on NHS services and patients should continue to attend all appointments as planned.
‘There are no major outages reported for NHS Scotland systems.
‘We are aware of impacts at Edinburgh Airport and would urge those travelling today to check with their operator.
‘Impact is being experienced by a limited number of UK rail operators but at the moment ScotRail and the Caledonian Sleeper service is unaffected.’
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