Aer Lingus IT systems restored after 51 flights to and from Dublin Airport cancelled 

The company said a technical problem with its cloud-based reservation and operational systems is impacting check-in and boarding caused the disruption.

Aer Lingus has said that its IT systems have been restored and that flights for tomorrow are planned to operate as normal after severe disruption caused the cancellation of dozens of flights today.

Huge queues formed at Dublin Airport today after systems crashed for the airline, denying access to check-in, boarding and its website.

This afternoon, it said that it had been forced to cancel all flights scheduled from Dublin Airport to all European and UK destinations from 2pm due to "a major incident with a network provider".

It was also announced that a majority of the airline's inbound flights to Dublin have also been cancelled, including those from the UK and Europe.

Inbound flights from destinations such as Rome, Geneva, Frankfurt, Santorini, Dusseldorf among others have been cancelled, however incoming flights from Spain and Portugal have not been affected.

After the cancellation of the flights, passengers due to fly on any of these services were advised not to travel to Dublin Airport.

In an update this evening, Aer Lingus said it had to cancel 51 flights in all, mainly to and from Dublin and European/UK destinations.

It is operating all of its transatlantic services from Dublin, “albeit with delays and reduced passenger numbers in some instances due to security restrictions as a result of the systems outage”.

Earlier, Dublin Airport said Aer Lingus was experiencing an internal IT issue which is impacting check-in and boarding.

Aer Lingus said that the “break in connectivity” in its services with a UK network provider has now been restored and work is ongoing to get all of its systems back online.

It said: “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.

“We will also share information regarding customers’ rights and the airlines’ obligations under Regulation (EC) 261/2004.” It concluded that its operations for tomorrow are planned to operate as normal and that customers are advised to come to the airports at the normal time for their scheduled flight.