A technology failure has caused disruptions for travellers, with around 10,000 passengers missing their flights at Stansted Airport today. Passengers experienced complete chaos and delays following an IT breakdown that halted operations at approximately 2:30 AM.
Visitors to the airport had to stand in line for several hours at check-in, baggage, and security, as Jet2 and Tui postponed their departures to allow passengers time to arrive at the gate. Some had to stand in long lines that extended outside the airport terminal before they could gain access to the building. A frustrated traveller posted on X: “There are people waiting outside just to enter the airport terminal, it is chaos.”
In the meantime, Ryanair, the largest airline, sent out nearly empty aircraft as scheduled to prevent delays later in the day. While airport officials claim the problem was settled by the afternoon, travellers are still experiencing delays. Travel expert Simon Calder has been reported as saying that that numerous Ryanair passengers missed their flights.
Another female passenger at the airport, who has been stranded at Stansted since 6:30 AM, informed agencies that over 150 individuals were lined up to exit the airport after missing their flights. She shared online that “My flight was scheduled for 8:35, so I arrived at 6:30. Upon entering the terminal, it was extremely crowded, resembling a scene from The Walking Dead, and when I glanced outside, I noticed people waiting in line.” I believed I would be fine, but it took so long to reach security that I found myself waiting in line for 10 minutes before my flight was scheduled to depart.
It has been reported tat at least 150 individuals are waiting to exit the airport, and the lines are growing longer. and customers have complained that they didn’t have any information about the problems leading to chaotic scenes.
A representative from Stansted Airport informed MailOnline that there were no flight cancellations.
Passengers left stranded reported that the power failure caused airport staff to communicate by yelling over the crowd of hundreds.
In a post on X, the airport announced: “Staff are diligently working to completely resume operations after the IT problem that affected our systems earlier today.”
Although the problem has been fixed, certain flights might still experience delays. Stansted went on to say that they regretted any disruption that the issues may cause and recommended that travellers verify their flight status with the airlines before heading to the airport. A representative from the airport stated that approximately 15,000 passengers leave through Stansted on a typical Sunday morning.
It is expected that a thorough investigation will now take place to identify the cause of the earlier issue. but nothing has been confirmed at this stage but, for background, it looks like it was related to internet access for some systems.
Nevertheless, travellers have found themselves stuck at the airport, while some chose to abandon their vacation and return home. An unhappy traveller expressed, “I was scheduled for a 6:30 am flight to Turkey, yet by 9:30 am, I was still stuck at the airport.”