(EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND) Edinburgh Airport halted all flights on December 5, 2025 after an air traffic control IT issue forced the closure of its runway for both take‑offs and landings, disrupting services from early morning and diverting multiple arrivals across the UK and Ireland.
The airport said the suspension followed an IT problem affecting its air traffic control provider, Air Navigation Solutions, with the issue reported shortly before 09:30 local time. According to UK media reports, the outage began around 08:30 on the Friday morning and led to all inbound and outbound flights being suspended as operators were instructed not to land or depart from the Scottish capital.
Edinburgh Airport, one of Scotland’s busiest transport hubs, confirmed the scale of the disruption in a public statement, saying:
“Due to an IT issue with our air traffic control provider, no flights are currently operating from Edinburgh Airport. Teams are working on the issue and will resolve as soon as possible.”
The airport’s reference to its “air traffic control provider” underscored that the problem lay not with an individual aircraft but with the systems used to safely manage all movements in and out of the airport.
The shutdown of the runway at Edinburgh Airport quickly affected airlines and passengers across a wide network. Flights operated by Delta Air Lines, British Airways, Ryanair, KLM, Turkish Airlines and easyJet were among those impacted, with arrivals diverted away from Edinburgh while the air traffic control IT issue was being addressed. A Delta service from New York JFK, which had been scheduled to land at 09:45, was diverted to Dublin Airport (DUB) instead of touching down in Edinburgh.
Other flights destined for the Scottish capital were redirected to Glasgow (GLA) and Manchester (MAN), according to the same reports, spreading the disruption to airports elsewhere in the UK and Ireland. The diversions underlined how a single point of failure in air traffic control systems at a major airport can quickly ripple across different countries’ aviation networks, forcing pilots and airline operations teams to make rapid changes to flight plans.
The last aircraft to land in Edinburgh before the full shutdown took effect was a Loganair flight, which touched down at around 08:40, shortly after the reported start of the outage. After that arrival, the runway was effectively closed as the air traffic control IT systems problem prevented further normal operations. With air traffic control at the heart of safe aircraft separation and runway use, even a limited IT fault can leave controllers unable to guarantee safe movements, making suspension of flights the only option until systems are stable.
The suspension remained in place until late morning, when the airport confirmed that flights had started moving again. At 10:40, Edinburgh Airport announced that operations were resuming and issued a second public update saying:
“Flights have now resumed following the IT issue with our air traffic provider. We thank passengers for their patience and understanding.”
That message signalled the end of the immediate emergency but also made clear that many travellers had faced delays and changes to their journeys while the air traffic control IT issue was being cleared.
A United Airlines flight was among the first to land after flights resumed, marking a cautious return to normal operations at Edinburgh Airport. The airport did not provide further technical detail in the material available about the nature of the IT issue affecting Air Navigation Solutions, nor how it was resolved, but its description of the problem as an “IT issue with our air traffic control provider” indicated a failure in the digital systems that support the safe handling of aircraft.
There were no reports in the available sources of injuries, a crash, or physical damage to any aircraft at Edinburgh Airport in connection with the disruption. The interruption to services was attributed solely to the air traffic control IT outage, and not to an aircraft incident or damage resulting from an emergency landing. Despite headlines referring to an emergency landing shutting the runway, the material describing the incident pointed instead to the air traffic control system’s failure as the reason operations were stopped.
For passengers booked to travel through Edinburgh Airport on December 5, 2025, the suspension meant cancelled take‑offs, diverted arrivals and a period during which “no flights [were] currently operating from Edinburgh Airport,” as the airport itself stated. While individual accounts of travellers were not included in the available reports, the scale of the suspension – covering all inbound and outbound flights for the period of the outage – suggests that thousands of people on affected services from airlines including Delta Air Lines, British Airways, Ryanair, KLM, Turkish Airlines, easyJet and United Airlines had their plans disrupted.
The incident also highlighted the central role of air traffic control providers such as Air Navigation Solutions in modern aviation. Although passengers may think first of airlines and airports, the systems and staff that manage the safe sequencing of aircraft on runways and in surrounding airspace are critical to keeping flights moving. An IT issue at that level, as seen at Edinburgh Airport, can instantly override normal schedules and force wide‑ranging operational decisions such as diversions to Dublin, Glasgow and Manchester.
While there was no information in the available material on whether regulators would review this particular outage, incidents involving the suspension of flights and diversions linked to air traffic control systems fall within the oversight of bodies such as the UK Civil Aviation Authority, which sets and enforces safety and operational standards across the sector. Any prolonged or repeated air traffic control IT issue at a major hub like Edinburgh Airport would draw close attention from airlines, passengers and officials concerned about reliability as well as safety.
The airport’s statement thanking passengers “for their patience and understanding” acknowledged the disruption and uncertainty caused during the outage window from around 08:30 to 10:40. For airlines like Delta and United, as well as carriers based in Europe such as Ryanair, KLM, Turkish Airlines and easyJet, diversions and delays can have knock‑on effects on aircraft and crew schedules for the rest of the day, although the available information did not detail how long it took for full normal operations to resume.
Edinburgh Airport did not, in the material provided, give a count of how many flights were diverted, cancelled or delayed, nor did it indicate whether any further checks or upgrades would be made to reduce the risk of another air traffic control IT issue in future. But the shutdown and subsequent restart of operations on December 5, 2025 showed how dependent a busy international airport is on the constant functioning of its air traffic control systems and the technology that underpins them.
For now, the incident stands out as a morning when, for more than two hours, the usual flow of domestic and international traffic through Edinburgh Airport came to an abrupt stop, not because of weather or a visible mechanical problem, but because an unseen IT outage in air traffic control systems made it impossible to keep flights moving safely until the issue was fixed.
On December 5, 2025, Edinburgh Airport suspended all flights after an IT failure at its air traffic control provider, starting around 08:30. The outage halted takeoffs and landings, forcing diversions to Dublin, Glasgow and Manchester and affecting carriers like Delta, British Airways and easyJet. After system recovery efforts, operations resumed at 10:40. No injuries or aircraft damage were reported. The incident exposed vulnerabilities in ATC IT systems and disrupted thousands of passengers.
