Air passengers across Europe faced delays on Monday on one of the summer’s busiest travel days after the UK’s air traffic control system suffered a “technical issue” resulting in restrictions on flights.
Many travelers were left stuck on the ground desperately seeking updates on their flights, even after the fault was resolved following a morning of disruption.
Britain’s National Air Traffic Services (NATS) issued a statement on its website on Monday afternoon saying it had “identified and remedied the technical issue affecting our flight planning system this morning.”
It added: “We are now working closely with airlines and airports to manage the flights affected as efficiently as possible.
“Our engineers will be carefully monitoring the system’s performance as we return to normal operations.”
The fault came on the last day of a summer public holiday weekend in the UK, meaning many vacationers would be affected.
NATS said it was working with airlines and airports to “manage the flights affected as efficiently as possible.”
“Our engineers will be carefully monitoring the system’s performance as we return to normal operations.”
Earlier, NATS had urged passengers to check with airlines on the status of flights and said its engineers were “working hard to find and fix the fault.”
“The flight planning issue affected the system’s ability to automatically process flight plans, meaning that flight plans had to be processed manually which cannot be done at the same volume, hence the requirement for traffic flow restrictions,” the statement continued.
“Our priority is always to ensure that every flight in the UK remains safe and we are sincerely sorry for the disruption this is causing. Please contact your airline for information on how this may affect your flight.”
Traveler Lee Vanstone, who is based in the UK, tweeted a photo of fellow passengers waiting at Pisa Airport on Monday after his flight was delayed.
