A TECHNICAL glitch caused security delays for passengers passing through Edinburgh Airport today [Thu], just a week after a similar problem led some travellers to miss flights.

 

Passengers have taken to Twitter in recent days to complain about long queues in the airport's new £25 million security hall, but passengers faced even longer waits this afternoon as a technical glitch struck.

Passengers were told via Twitter that the airport, which is Scotland's busiest, was "experiencing some delays in security due to a technical fault".

The issue was resolved around 5.30pm and the security hall is now said to be "back to full operation" with "passengers moving well through security".

It comes a week after an IT malfunction sparked complaints of long waits to clear security and baggage checks, with some passengers missing flights as a result.

Travellers branded the security hall a "complete shambles" and "the worst check-in experience ever" on Monday June 22, amid reports of so-called "fast track" queues stretching back to the food hall and waits of more than an hour.

The airport acknowledged that this had been "unacceptable" but said the problem was resolved by Tuesday.

The new security hall, which was designed to offer passengers faster and more streamlined transit through the airport, opened at the end of last year as part of a multi-million pound expansion of the terminal.

However, airport bosses have conceded that there have been problems with bottlenecks at peak times and passengers having to queue "for longer than is acceptable".

In February, passengers faced giant security queues amid reports that 13 of the airport's 14 security staff had called in sick.

In April, there were complaints of hour-long waits to clear security which airport bosses blamed on a "large number of people arriving in a short space of time".

A spokesperson for Edinburgh Airport said: "This afternoon we experienced a temporary system error in our security hall which caused a short period of congestion in the terminal. The systems were brought back online quickly with minimal disruption caused. We'd like to apologise to our passengers for the inconvenience this caused and thank them for their patience while it was resolved."