PASSENGERS at Edinburgh Airport faced flight delays after a power cut plunged the terminal into darkness yesterday.

Power to the building was lost at about 9am, causing delays to check-ins and flights. Frustrated passengers reported long queues in the terminal building and pictures on social media showed the security hall in near darkness, with only emergency lighting available.

Engineers were on scene at Scotland’s busiest airport working to bring the power back.

The airport said power had been restored and operations were returning to normal, but warned passengers there could be further delays.

A spokesman said: “We can confirm that power is now returning to the terminal and that flights have resumed. We’re working to allow passengers to continue their journeys in a safe and ordered manner and we thank passengers for their patience whilst we do this.

“As always, the safety of passengers and staff is our priority. We expect there to be further delays whilst we clear the backlog.”

The airport is the sixth busiest in the UK, handling more than 12 million passengers a year.

Long queues which had formed outside the building were gone by the afternoon, but the main terminal building was still very busy.

The power cut affected the terminal and the main hall was plunged into darkness with only emergency lighting available for almost an hour. It was not possible to provide the usual ground services such as check-in or security during the outage.

The airport said that back-up power systems also failed inside the terminal, but not on the airfields.

Some passengers who landed during the power cut were unable to leave planes because immigration facilities were down.”