Sumburgh Airport open again after staying closed earlier due to adverse weather

LAST night’s thunderstorms that caused severe flooding in parts of Scotland are affecting travel and communication networks in Shetland.

After having been closed for a number of hours this morning Sumburgh Airport re-opened at 11.45am.

The airport had earlier taken to Twitter to alert the travelling public. It said: “Due to adverse weather conditions the airport is currently closed to all arriving and departing aircraft.

“We remain open for emergency flights and will provide you with updates via social media. If your flight has been affected, please contact your airline directly.”

Meanwhile, BT broadband services in parts of Shetland have been knocked out due flooding of a BT data centre in Edinburgh which damaged broadband equipment.

A BT spokesperson said: “Severe storms and flooding in Edinburgh last night damaged some broadband equipment in our exchange buildings. As a result, some customers in Edinburgh and a small number of other locations in Scotland may be unable to connect to the Internet.

“Engineers are doing everything they can to restore any affected customers as soon as possible. Due to the extent of the damage, we expect engineers to complete their work in the exchanges later today (Wednesday) – at which point we’ll be able to assess any further related impact.

“Most phone and mobile services are not affected and we’re very sorry for any inconvenience.”

The company advised that given the extent of the lightning on Tuesday night there may well also be individual network faults in Openreach’s access network, which should be reported to service providers as usual.

The spokesman added that due to the type of incident it was impossible to say how many local customers are without service.

The Met Office has issued thunderstorm warnings for the central Highlands and parts of the Borders, though heavy rain with some thunder and lightning mixed in is also expected to move north from Orkney later in the day.