Delays at Heathrow, Stansted and Gatwick airports as global IT outage grounds over 4,000 flights

A global IT outage has wreaked havoc on air travel and caused the cancellation of nearly 4,300 flights worldwide by Friday 18:00 UK time, with the number expected to climb a further still.

This disruption coincides with what is anticipated to be the busiest day for UK flight departures this year, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.

Some 3,214 flights are set to depart from UK airports, marking the highest daily figure since October 2019. But a tech outage has already led to the cancellation of 1,078 flights globally, with this number likely to increase.

From Friday, July 19 to Sunday, July 21, a total of 9,075 flights are scheduled to take off from UK airports, translating to over 1.6 million seats. It represents a four per cent rise in scheduled departures compared to the same weekend in 2023.

Heathrow Airport is expected to handle the highest number of departures, followed by Gatwick, Manchester, Stansted, and Edinburgh.

Heathrow is still operating but some of its systems have been hit by the outage.

A 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.”

Stansted Airport has said some retail payment machine services have been impacted but “are slowly coming back online, and cash/pdq payments being taken in the meantime.” Some airline check-in services are being done manually, it added.

In a post on X, Stansted Airport advised passengers to check the status of their flights with individual airlines:

And BBC Essex posted a photo of busy queues at Stansted on Friday morning:

London Gatwick Airport also said it has been affected by the global Microsoft issues, so “passengers may experience some delays while checking in and passing through security.

“Passengers should still arrive for their normal check-in time. We apologise for any inconvenience and are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible,” it said in a statement online.

Some airlines including Ryanair and Tui have reported disruption to flights today, with the former advising passengers to arrive early:

TUI issued a statement saying that “due to a global IT glitch affecting Windows computers and servers, TUI’s overall level of service is impacted. This outage also applies to partner systems like the automated check-in process at airports or cruise ports.

“TUI and its partners are aware of the situation and are working hard to resolve the issues. In the meantime, most of our processes can be covered manually.”

A spokesperson for Easyjet said its IT systems have not been directly affected by the Microsoft systems issues but it is aware the outage has hit some airport systems across Europe. “This has led to some disruption to flights this morning and we expect some further potential impact to flights today,” it said.