Edinburgh Airport issues update as global IT outage causes flight cancellations and delays

Flight delays and cancellations are among the disruption expected to continue into the weekend after a global IT outage, as experts warned it could take weeks for systems to fully recover.

A flawed update rolled out by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike knocked many offline around the world on Friday, causing flight and train cancellations and crippling some healthcare systems.

Edinburgh Airport stressed that passengers should check with airlines for any delays or cancellations before travelling over the weekend despite “things returning to normal”.

A spokesperson for Edinburgh Airport said: “Things are now returning to normal at Edinburgh Airport clearly there will be knock-on impacts across the aviation network.

“Passengers should continue to check with their airline for flight updates over the coming days.”

Some 167 flights scheduled to depart UK airports were axed on Friday, with others delayed, while 171 flights due to land in the UK were cancelled, following the technical glitch.

Aviation analytics company Cirium said 5,078 flights – or 4.6% of those scheduled – were cancelled globally on Friday, including the 167 UK departures.

A fix was deployed for a bug in the update, which affected Microsoft Windows PCs, on Friday afternoon, with the chief executive of the company at the centre of the outage warning it would take “some time” for systems to be fully restored.

George Kurtz also apologised for events, saying he is “deeply sorry”, and made clear it was “not a security or cyber incident”.

In a technical statement, CrimeStrike said a “sensor configuration” had “triggered a logic error” which the company said had been corrected.

Away from travel, the National Pharmacy Association warned disruption to pharmacy services is likely to continue through the weekend, even when systems are back online, as outlets deal with a backlog of medicine deliveries.

Industry expert Adam Leon Smith of BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, warned that it could even take “weeks” for all computers and systems to be fully restored.

“The fix will have to be applied to many computers around the world. So if computers are getting blue screens and endless loops, it could be more difficult and take days and weeks,” he said.

Professor Ciaran Martin, the founding chief executive of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), also said it was hard to estimate how long it would take to recover from the outage.

“The underlying problem is fixed and the fixes are being implemented,” he said.

“Some industries can recovery quickly. But others like aviation will have long backlogs. That said, I’d be surprised if we were still facing serious problems this time next week.”

Experts warned users to “remain vigilant” against potential scams as systems recover.

In a letter to customers and partners, Mr Kurtz said: “We know that adversaries and bad actors will try to exploit events like this.

“I encourage everyone to remain vigilant and ensure that you’re engaging with official CrowdStrike representatives.”

The NCSC highlighted an increase in phishing referencing the outage.

On its website, the company urged organisations to ensure mitigations are in place and advised individuals to be alert to suspicious emails or messages.

“Note that an increase in phishing referencing this outage has already been observed, as opportunistic malicious actors seek to take advantage of the situation,” the NCSC said.

The flawed update caused major infrastructure to grind to a halt with computer systems knocked offline, and many devices were showing the so-called “blue screen of death” as they got stuck in an endless cycle of trying to reboot themselves, affecting key sectors across the country.

The majority of NHS Scotland health boards said only a “small number” of their systems had been affected meanwhile ticketing platforms for the likes of Celtic, Hibernian and Hearts were impacted.

Microsoft deputy chief information security officer Ann Johnson described the outage as “a very major issue” and could not predict how long it would take to get all customers back online.