LAST UPDATE | 10 Sep 2022

AER LINGUS SAYS it has fixed a “major” connection issue with the company’s online system, after it resulted in a raft of flights being cancelled at Dublin Airport this afternoon.

The company cancelled 51 flights today, mainly to and from Dublin and European and UK destinations.

But the company has advised customers that its flights for tomorrow are planned to “operate as normal” and customers are advised to arrive at airports at “the normal time for their scheduled flight”.

The company also ruled out the possibility of a malicious attack by hackers as the cause of the failure, telling this publication: “The incident was not the result of a cyber attack.”

In a statement a spokesperson said: “Aer Lingus sincerely apologises to customers for the severe disruption caused today by the unavailability of key systems for check-in, boarding and our website.

“This system outage was caused by a break in connectivity in services from a UK network provider. The break in connectivity has now been restored and we are taking steps to bring all of our systems back online.

“Aer Lingus had to cancel 51 flights today, mainly to and from Dublin/European and UK destinations.”

Delays

The airline said it is operating all of its transatlantic services from Dublin, albeit with delays and reduced passenger numbers in some instances due to security restrictions applying as a result of the systems outage.

“Our transatlantic services from Shannon operated as normal today. Aer Lingus Regional (operated by Emerald Airlines) are also planning to operate remaining services today, albeit with delays.”

The spokesperson added: “Any customer impacted by today’s disruptions will be able apply for a refund or change their travel plans, free of charge through Aerlingus.com, our call centres and our social media channels.

“As systems have now been restored we are contacting customers directly in order to re-accommodate them as efficiently as possible.

“We have made additional customer service agents available to deal with high call volumes – please bear with us as we try to service all customer queries.”

Earlier, it cancelled its flights to the UK and most of Europe from Dublin Airport for Saturday following a “major” connection issue with the company’s online system.

The airline’s flights originally scheduled to depart to Dublin from Europe from 2pm onwards today have also been cancelled, with the exception of flights to Portugal and Spain.

Thousands queueing

Some passengers vented their frustrations on social media as thousands of people queue inside and outside the airport today.

Aer Lingus flies out of Terminal 2 at the airport.

Due to ongoing @AerLingus IT issues, the airline has confirmed the cancellation of all @AerLingus flights to the UK & Europe that were due to depart Dublin Airport after 2pm today (Saturday). Impacted passengers should contact @AerLingus regarding next steps. pic.twitter.com/XnZLgpCFpB

— Dublin Airport (@DublinAirport) September 10, 2022

DAA, which oversees the running of the airport, earlier said that other airlines were not affected by the issue.

A statement from DAA noted that Aer Lingus was “experiencing an internal IT issue at present, impacting their check-in and boarding processes”.

“As they work to resolve the issue we ask guests to cooperate with our teams. We thank everyone for their patience and understanding.”

DAA advised passengers to get in touch with Aer Lingus directly.

With reporting by Órla Ryan