A retired nurse has pledged she will wait all day for her flight to Florida after IT issues caused long delays.

Elaine Bevan from Southampton is one of thousands of passengers stuck at Gatwick Airport.

Businesses and institutions around the world have been been knocked offline after a major IT outage, believed to have been caused by a faulty update to widely used cybersecurity software CrowdStrike.

Major infrastructure including airlines, train companies, banks and media outlets have ground to a halt after their computer systems were knocked offline or leaving devices showing the so-called “Blue Screen of Death”.

Gatwick Airport said on Friday passengers may experience delays while checking in and passing through security.

Ms Bevan spoke to the PA News Agency after waiting in line for over two hours to check in for her 2pm flight to Orlando, Florida.

The 70-year-old booked the two-week trip with her family in November 2023 and said she will wait as long as necessary because the holiday has been booked for such a “long time”.

Ms Bevan said: “We’re all getting a bit tired. It took us ages to find the queue in the first place.”

Asked if she was prepared to wait until the evening for the flight, she said: “I think we have to. It’s been booked for a long time – since November last year.”

She asked: “In the world where IT is king, why does it not perform as it should?”

Transport Secretary Louise Haigh said her department is “working at pace with industry and across Government on the issue”.

Consumer group Which? advised airline passengers to avoid checking in luggage if possible.

UK air traffic control provider Nats said its systems are “operating normally” - including at its Hampshire bases in Whiteley and Swanwick.

Meanwhile, the owner of Southampton Airport said it was "largely unaffected", but that some airlines had switched to manual check-in and retailers were only accepting cash payments.

A spokesperson for AGS added there would likely be knock-on delays from "issues elsewhere".

There was also disruption on Southampton's rail network, with South Western Railway warning that ticket machines were unoperational, and Great Western Railway and Southern also affected by other IT issues.