Airports returning to normal after computer fault
[September 26th 2008]
Airports in the UK are getting back to normal today after yesterday’s air traffic control problems, but passengers can still expect some flight delays and flight cancellations.
The advice for passengers at Heathrow and Gatwick airports this morning from airport operator BAA is: “Passengers should expect some delays, and are asked to check in as normal”.
Heathrow, which operates at 99% capacity and is therefore susceptible to delays when there are any problems, is likely to be worst hit today. Yesterday there were 35 flight cancellations at Heathrow, mostly on British Airways flights.
BA has said that there will be more cancellations today due to planes being in the wrong location as a result of yesterday’s problems, but all these will be on multi-frequency routes so passengers should be able to find an alternative flight.
Low cost airline easyJet was also hard hit by the air traffic control problems yesterday. The budget airline had to cancel 53 flights from Gatwick, Luton and Stansted airports including services to Glasgow, Belfast, Edinburgh, Milan, Munich and Barcelona.
Flight cancellations were not confined to airports in the south east. Three flights were cancelled from Cardiff airport to Belfast, Edinburgh and Newcastle, and there was also disruption at Manchester and East Midlands airports.
NATS, which runs air traffic control operations in the UK, said that operations returned to normal at 7pm last night. It says there was a fault in one of the systems that feeds air traffic controllers’ workstations at the London Area Control Centre.
“Restrictions were imposed on the number of aircraft entering UK airspace through London Area Control sectors - airspace above 24,000ft above England and Wales - and those taking off from major UK airports. This maintains safety whilst controllers operate with manual systems at reduced capacity; it does mean, however, that flights incur delay,” NATS explained.
NATS director of operational performance, Ian Hall, said yesterday: “Safety has not been compromised at any stage and we sincerely apologise to those who have been inconvenienced this evening. We are working closely with airlines to increase capacity this evening to help minimise delays and impact on the rest of today’s schedules”.
There were early teething problems when the new NATS air traffic control centre opened at Swanwick near Southampton in 2002, but this has been the first major incident since then.
“NATS handles nearly 2.5m flights a year and our systems are incredibly resilient. We take every step to avoid any problems but are always aware, that in maintaining and updating highly complex systems, we can experience difficulties,” Hall added.
Written by: Nick Purdom
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