AIRPORTS and railway stations are among places to have been hit by a major IT outage this morning, Friday.

Passengers and patients are warned of delays and disruption as Microsoft confirmed it was investigating a global outage which has affected vital NHS services in the UK and airlines across the world.

Manchester Airport has confirmed that some airlines have been affected which means that check-in and boarding is being carried out manually.

A spokesman for Manchester Airport said: “The global IT problems are affecting some of our airlines this morning.

“That means some processes like check-in and boarding are being carried our manually and are taking longer than usual for those airlines.

“The majority of flights operating from the airport are unaffected but the terminals are slightly busier than usual as a result of the situation.

“As always, passengers are advised to check the status of their flights with their airline before they leave for the airport and should follow their airlines' advice about the best time to arrive at the airport. We also advise checking up-to-date travel advice as some train services have also been affected by the issues.

“Some of our retailers have also been affected meaning they have been unable to process card payments.

“We thank all our passengers for their patience and understanding.”

Rail passengers are among those affected.

Train service information National Rail Enquiries said there are ‘widespread IT issues across the entire network’.

Passengers are advised to check before they travel.