A glitch in UK air traffic control systems has wreaked havoc at European airports, with hundreds of flights delayed for hours. The problem was detected early on Monday, on one of the busiest days of the year, and has fully affected London's Heathrow and Stansted airports, and to a lesser extent Gatwick.
The National Air Traffic Service (NATS) has confirmed at noon that its systems were experiencing "a technical problem that forced the restriction of air traffic to maintain safety." According to The Daily Mail, UK airspace could be partially closed for 12 hours and the chaos could continue throughout the week and seriously affect "operation return" after the summer holidays.
In the early afternoon, the British air traffic service announced that it had "identified and solved" the technical problem and that it was working hand in hand with the airlines to return to normality "in the most efficient way possible".
The Nats confirmed that air traffic had to be "manually processed" due to the technical issue, forcing it to "reduce the number of flights" but not completely close the airspace. "Our priority has always been the safety of passengers", could be read in the official statement
"Many flights will still be affected," however warned Transport Secretary Mark Harper, who asked passengers for their understanding and patience and acknowledged that the problem will still cause disruption to air traffic during the critical week at the end of August.
The technical failure has affected Spanish airports, from Barajas to Mallorca, with delays in flight departures that have caused large crowds. British Airways has informed passengers that their flights had been affected by a technical failure in air traffic control in the United Kingdom.
EasyJet has sent a message to its passengers: "We are informed that a problem with air control is affecting all flights arriving or departing from the United Kingdom. We are speaking with the relevant authorities to find out the impact and find out When can our operations return to normal?
The warning was launched early in the morning by the Loganair company, after the problems registered with the departure of its flights from Scotland: "There is a problem with air traffic that affects the control computers and has spread throughout the entire the network throughout the morning.
The technical failure greatly affected international and even transatlantic flights between France, Germany and the Netherlands and the United States. Television presenter Gabby Logan also sent a message on X - the network formerly known as Twitter - from the runway at Budapest airport: "We have just been told that the airspace is closed and that we have to wait up to 12 hours. We are sitting on the plane and waiting."
Despite this, NATS has clarified that "UK airspace is not closed"; these restrictions "that ensure that we can maintain security" have simply been applied.
The technical failure is estimated to have affected the vast majority of the 6,000 inbound and outbound flights to the UK on August 28, on one of the busiest days of the year and at a level of 90% of air traffic from 2019 before of the pandemic.
Heathrow launched a notice to passengers to check the status of their flights until they go to the airport. Long queues formed outside the terminal at Edinburgh airport, Luton and Birmingham also had serious problems, as did Liverpool airport. Manchester Airport operated relatively normally through the morning, but warned passengers there could be problems later in the day.
In an internal communication from British Airways to its staff, released by The Guardian, it was warned that the technical failure had forced the "manual processing" of air control in the United Kingdom, so "significant delays" and possible "were to be expected." diversions to other airports".
It is estimated that some 500 flights had to be canceled throughout Monday morning. Belfast airport was one of the hardest hit with dozens of cancellations. Flights to Dublin and other destinations in the Republic of Ireland were also seriously affected.
The chaotic situation led the Liberal-Democratic Party to request the convening of an emergency Cobra cabinet and demand that the "premier" Rishi Sunak take action on the matter to mitigate the disruption suffered by thousands of Britons upon returning from their vacations.
