The aviation industry, and an estimated one million passengers planning to fly to, from, or within the UK, already knew Friday 19 July would be difficult. The highest number of flights since 2019 are scheduled to operate.
The main concerns were about the ability of air-traffic control systems across Europe to cope with the high demand.
But the global IT failure is making matters far worse than anyone expected. The outage is hitting airport and airline systems from online check-in to flight dispatch procedures.
In particular, online check in – used by many passengers – has stopped working for many airlines.
Ryanair, Europe’s biggest budget airline, put out its first warning shortly after 8am, saying: “We’re currently experiencing disruption across the network due to a Global 3rd party IT outage which is out of our control.
“If you’re due to travel today and have not already checked-in for your flight, you can do so at the airport. We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused as a result of this Global 3rd party IT outage.
“We advise all passengers to arrive at the airport at least 3 hours before their scheduled departure time.”
But airports were urging passengers to turn up at the normal time, fearing that a surge of travellers arriving many hours early could snarl up security procedures.
A Heathrow spokesperson said: “Microsoft is currently experiencing a global outage which is impacting select systems at Heathrow. Flights are operational and we are implementing contingency plans to minimise any impact on journeys.
Passengers are advised to check with their airline for the latest flight information.” The first cancellation at the UK’s leading holiday airport, London Gatwick, was an easyJet round trip to Berlin.
The airline’s Operations Control told passengers: “We’re sorry that your flight has been cancelled.
“This is due to some IT system issues that are effecting multiple airports across Europe”
“This disruption is not isolated to easyJet and is affecting all airlines which is considered to be an extraordinary circumstance outside of our control.”
Anyone whose flight is cancelled is entitled to be rebooked to travel as soon as possible on any airline. But on the peak holiday weekend, very few spare seats are available.