More flights cancelled as air traffic chief reveals chaos unfolding inside control room – latest
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More flights were cancelled on Wednesday as the air traffic chief has revealed the chaos that unfolded inside the control room following the discovery of a “significantly different” fault.
In an exclusive interview with The Independent’s travel correspondent Simon Calder, Martin Rolfe explained how Nats engineers raced against time to bring the air traffic control system back online after “dodgy” flight data caused a serious outage.
Mr Rolfe said the fault was first identified at 8:30am, three hours before the automatic system went offline.
“We were working on a timeline of restoring the system before 12:30pm,” he added.
What followed after was back-and-forth communication with airlines, the Department for Transport, the Civil Aviation Authority – and the realisation that “there was potential for a significant problem”.
This update comes as British Airways cancelled a further 34 domestic and European flights to and from London Heathrow as the airline recovers from Monday’s air-traffic control shutdown.
British Airways told passengers the Nats meltdown on bank holiday Monday “created significant and unavoidable delays and cancellations“ to their flight schedule.
Have you been affected by delays? If so email andy.gregory@independent.co.uk
Key Points
Hundreds of flights cancelled again on Tuesday
French airline’s ‘dodgy flight plan’ set system meltdown in motion, sources tell Simon Calder
Data reveals 1,500 flights were cancelled on Monday in worst day for aviation since 2010
Technical issue ‘identified and remedied’, National Air Traffic Services says
Air traffic control failure causes chaos at UK airports
easyJet lays on rescue flights
British Airways cancellations continue at Heathrow
08:23 , Maanya Sachdeva
British Airways has cancelled a further 34 domestic and European flights to and from London Heathrow as the airline recovers from Monday’s air-traffic control shutdown.
The Independent has identified 18 domestic departures, including three in each direction linking Heathrow with Aberdeen and Edinburgh, and two to and from Glasgow.
To and from Continental Europe, single departures serving Berlin, Budapest, Dublin, Frankfurt, Geneva, Munich, Prague and Rome.
A flight to Sofia has been delayed for 23 hours.
British Airways is telling passengers: “Like all airlines using UK airspace, our flights have been severely disrupted as a result of a major issue experienced by Nats Air Traffic Control on Monday 28 August. While Nats has now resolved the issue, it has created significant and unavoidable delays and cancellations.”
Passengers booked on short-haul flights on Wednesday can move their flights free of charge to a later date, subject to availability.
Ask Me Anything: Put your questions to Simon Calder as flight cancellations cause mayhem across Europe
07:21 , Maanya Sachdeva
How likely is it that your travel plans will be impacted by the travel chaos, that all began with a four-hour failure of the UK’s main air-traffic control system on Monday?
Our travel correspondent Simon Calder will be live on The Independent at 9am on Wednesday 30 August to answer as many questions about cancelled flights, delays, and reimbursements as he can in one hour.
Follow along here:
Simon Calder to answer your holiday questions amid air traffic control chaos
‘Frustrated’ Scottish student stranded at airport overnight amid travel chaos
07:00 , Namita Singh
A “frustrated and tired” Scottish drama student was left stranded in Amsterdam Airport overnight when an air traffic control glitch saw his flight cancelled, forcing him to sleep there.
Matthew Creed, a 26-year-old drama student from Harthill, became stuck at Schiphol Amsterdam Airport after his flight with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines to Edinburgh was cancelled.
Tens of thousands more airline passengers suffered flight cancellations on Tuesday due to the knock-on impact of an ATC fault.Analysis of flight data websites by the PA news agency shows at least 281 flights – including departures and arrivals – were cancelled on Tuesday at the UK’s six busiest airports.
Report:
‘Frustrated’ Scottish student stranded at airport overnight amid travel chaos
Analysis: What is causing the air traffic control chaos?
06:30 , Namita Singh
It’s the £80m question: why are airlines facing enormous financial losses while their passengers endure extreme distress, asks our travel correspondent Simon Calder.
The last week of August is a time of high demand for air travel, especially from returning holidaymakers. Because of the UK’s limited airport infrastructure, especially in southeast England, there is precious little slack in the system: Heathrow and Gatwick are, respectively, the busiest two-runway and single-runway airports in the world.
So the UK’s normally well-regarded air traffic control (ATC) system needed to be working perfectly on bank holiday Monday.
At 11.24am on Monday I began to get reports from airlines of an “ATC failure affecting entire UK airspace”. Within 15 minutes I asked Nats, the national air traffic service, what was happening.
Just before noon on Monday, the company told me: “We are currently experiencing a technical issue and have applied traffic flow restrictions to maintain safety. Engineers are working to find and fix the fault.”
In this analysis, Calder poses some tough questions as he argues that the authorities have some explaining to do.
Simon Calder: What is causing the air traffic control chaos?
ICYMI: Everything you need to know about air-traffic control failure on Tuesday
06:00 , Namita Singh
As airlines struggle to recover from the four-hour failure of the main air-traffic control system across the UK on Monday, airlines are making dozens more cancellations.
Aircraft and flight crew are out of position after the severe disruption on bank holiday Monday.
More than 1,200 flights to, from and within the UK were grounded by the failure at Nats, the national air-traffic provider. Around 200,000 people are starting the day where they did not wish to be – with many sleeping overnight at airports.
Read this report from our travel correspondent Simon Calder:
Everything you need to know about air traffic control failure on Tuesday
More travel chaos after 300,000 hit by cancellations – and French error blamed for air traffic mayhem
05:30 , Namita Singh
Passengers hit by the air traffic control meltdown face being stranded abroad for up to a week, as it emerged that an incorrectly filed flight plan by a French airline may have triggered the outage.
Around 300,000 airline passengers have now been hit by flight cancellations since the hours-long failure of the Nats system on bank holiday Monday. The knock-on effect is set to last for several more days, as under-pressure airlines battle the backlog in a week where millions are already returning to the UK from their summer holidays.
Several sources say the issue may have been caused when a French airline filed a dodgy flight plan that made no digital sense.
Our travel correspondent Simon Calder and Andy Gregory have more:
More travel chaos as French error blamed for flights mayhem
‘No indication’ of cyber attack leading to air traffic control fault
05:00 , Namita Singh
Nats chief executive Martin Rolfe said in a statement yesterday that there are “no indications” the glitch was caused by a cyber-attack.
Explaining the air traffic control (ATC) fault, Mr Rolfe said: “Very occasionally technical issues occur that are complex and take longer to resolve.
“In the event of such an issue, our systems are designed to isolate the problem and prioritise continued safe air traffic control.“This is what happened yesterday.
“At no point was UK airspace closed but the number of flights was significantly reduced.
“Initial investigations into the problem show it relates to some of the flight data we received.
“Our systems, both primary and the back-ups, responded by suspending automatic processing to ensure that no incorrect safety-related information could be presented to an air traffic controller or impact the rest of the air traffic system.
“There are no indications that this was a cyber-attack.”
Mr Rolfe added that Nats is working closely with the Civil Aviation Authority to provide a preliminary report to the Transport Secretary on Monday - the conclusions of which will be made public.
Repatriation flights to set off for Gatwick
04:30 , Namita Singh
The first easyJet repatriation flights returning passengers to the UK following an air traffic control (ATC) fault will set off for London Gatwick as disruption continues.
The failure, which led to a spate of cancellations and delays, was caused by flight data received by National Air Traffic Services (Nats) - with both primary and back-up systems responding by suspending automatic processing.
EasyJet announced it will run five repatriation flights to London Gatwick, with the first two set to take off today.
The airline said: “During this traditionally very busy week for travel, options for returning to the UK are more limited on some routes and so easyJet will be operating five repatriation flights to London Gatwick over the coming days from Palma and Faro on August 30, and Tenerife and Enfidha on August 31 and from Rhodes on September 1.
“We are also operating larger aircraft on key routes including Faro, Ibiza, Dalaman and Tenerife to provide some additional 700 seats this week.”
Pregnant woman in Greece for anniversary among thousands left stranded abroad for days
04:00 , Eleanor Noyce
A pregnant woman who travelled to Greece to celebrate her first wedding anniversary is among thousands of passengers left stranded abroad, as UK air travel continues to reel from a major air traffic control meltdown.
Around 200,000 people saw their flights cancelled on Monday after a technical fault with National Air Traffic Services systems led to 1,500 planes being grounded and many thousands more delayed.
Despite the issue being fixed on Monday, the major disruption to tightly-packed bank holiday schedules continues to cause chaos in UK flight schedules – with many passengers now facing the prospect of being stuck overseas for more than a week.
Andy Gregory has the full story:
Pregnant woman in Greece for anniversary among thousands now left stranded abroad
More travel chaos after 300,000 hit by cancellations – and French error blamed for air traffic mayhem
03:00 , Eleanor Noyce
Passengers hit by the air traffic control meltdown face being stranded abroad for up to a week, as it emerged that an incorrectly filed flight plan by a French airline may have triggered the outage.
Around 300,000 airline passengers have now been hit by flight cancellations since the hours-long failure of the Nats system on bank holiday Monday. The knock-on effect is set to last for several more days, as under-pressure airlines battle the backlog in a week where millions are already returning to the UK from their summer holidays.
Several sources say the issue may have been caused when a French airline filed a dodgy flight plan that made no digital sense. Instead of the error being rejected, it prompted a shutdown of the entire Nats system – raising questions over how one clerical error could cause such mayhem.
Read more:
More travel chaos as French error blamed for flights mayhem
Simon Calder: What is causing the air traffic control chaos? The authorities have some explaining to do
02:00 , Eleanor Noyce
In a statement, the CEO indicated the organisation’s complex IT system defaulted to fail-safe mode when presented with anomalous data.
Mr Rolfe said: “Our systems, both primary and the back-ups, responded by suspending automatic processing to ensure that no incorrect safety-related information could be presented to an air traffic controller or impact the rest of the air traffic system.”
Surely the Nats system should automatically have identified an anomaly and spat out the plan, saying “try again”? Yet instead, the flight plan was ingested and set in train a shutdown of the entire system.
The closest analogy I can come up with is an extremely well-tuned machine – let’s say an aircraft engine – being prone to spanners being thrown into the works.
Simon Calder has more:
Simon Calder: What is causing the air traffic control chaos?
Flight data received by air traffic services ‘caused air traffic control fault'
01:00 , Eleanor Noyce
The air traffic control failure which led to a spate of flight cancellations was caused by flight data received by National Air Traffic Services (Nats), with both primary and back-up systems responding by suspending automatic processing, chief executive Martin Rolfe said.
There are no indications that the failure was caused by a cyber-attack, he added in a statement released on Tuesday.
Mr Rolfe also wanted to “reassure” people that all Nats systems have been running normally since Monday afternoon to support airline and airport operations.
He said: “Very occasionally technical issues occur that are complex and take longer to resolve.
“In the event of such an issue our systems are designed to isolate the problem and prioritise continued safe air traffic control. This is what happened yesterday.
“At no point was UK airspace closed but the number of flights was significantly reduced.
“Initial investigations into the problem show it relates to some of the flight data we received.
“Our systems, both primary and the back-ups, responded by suspending automatic processing to ensure that no incorrect safety-related information could be presented to an air traffic controller or impact the rest of the air traffic system.
“There are no indications that this was a cyber-attack. We have well established procedures, overseen by the CAA (Civil Aviation Authority), to investigate incidents.
“We are already working closely with them to provide a preliminary report to the Secretary of State for Transport on Monday.
“The conclusions of this report will be made public.”
ICYMI: EasyJet to send ‘rescue flights’ for passengers stranded by air traffic control chaos
Wednesday 30 August 2023 00:01 , Eleanor Noyce
Britain’s largest budget airline will send “rescue flights” for passengers stranded abroad by air traffic control chaos.
As hundreds of flights were cancelled on Tuesday, easyJet confirmed it would operate five repatriation flights to London Gatwick over the coming days.
The rescue flights will operate from Palma and Faro on 30 August, Tenerife and Enfidha on 31 August and Rhodes on 1 September.
More than 1,200 flights to, from and within the UK were grounded by the failure at the national air traffic provider Nats, with around 200,000 people sleeping at airports overnight.
Read more:
EasyJet to send ‘rescue flights’ for passengers stranded by air traffic control chaos
ICYMI: Ryanair boss slams air traffic control chaos as ‘unacceptable’
Tuesday 29 August 2023 23:00 , Eleanor Noyce
Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary has slammed air traffic control (ATC) provider Nats for the “unacceptable” disruption caused over the past two days.
In a video message, the chief executive described Monday as “a very difficult day” with 250 flights cancelled, while a further 70 were axed on Tuesday.
Speaking from the airline’s operations centre at Dublin Airport, Mr O’Leary said: “We’ve had a very difficult day yesterday due to the UK Nats ATC failure.
“I’m sad to report that we had to cancel about 250 flights affecting the flights of about 40,000 passengers because of long delays to flight plans, crews running out of hours.
“Last night we had 20 aircraft that couldn’t get back to their home bases so they’re out of place for today.
“Today, unfortunately, it looks like we’re going to cancel about another 70 flights.”
Ask Me Anything: Put your questions to Simon Calder as flight cancellations cause mayhem across Europe
Tuesday 29 August 2023 22:00 , Eleanor Noyce
Flight cancellations are continuing as airlines struggle to recover from the four-hour failure of the main air-traffic control system across the UK on bank holiday Monday.
The outage left aircraft and flight crew out of position after the severe disruption on Monday 28 August, with an estimated 1,200 flights to and from the UK cancelled.
Britain’s biggest budget airline, easyJet, grounded more than 80 flights on Tuesday, while British Airways also grounded more than 60 flights.
Ask our travel expert for advice on your rights and what to do if your flight is cancelled:
Simon Calder to answer your holiday questions amid air traffic control chaos
Simon Calder: What is causing the air traffic control chaos? The authorities have some explaining to do
Tuesday 29 August 2023 21:30 , Eleanor Noyce
It’s the £80m question: why are airlines facing enormous financial losses while their passengers endure extreme distress?
The last week of August is a time of high demand for air travel, especially from returning holidaymakers. Because of the UK’s limited airport infrastructure, especially in southeast England, there is precious little slack in the system: Heathrow and Gatwick are, respectively, the busiest two-runway and single-runway airports in the world.
So the UK’s normally well-regarded air traffic control (ATC) system needed to be working perfectly on bank holiday Monday.
At 11.24am on Monday I began to get reports from airlines of an “ATC failure affecting entire UK airspace”. Within 15 minutes I asked Nats, the national air traffic service, what was happening.
Simon Calder reports:
Simon Calder: What is causing the air traffic control chaos?
Pregnant woman in Greece for anniversary among thousands left stranded abroad for days
Tuesday 29 August 2023 20:59 , Eleanor Noyce
A pregnant woman who travelled to Greece to celebrate her first wedding anniversary is among thousands of passengers left stranded abroad, as UK air travel continues to reel from a major air traffic control meltdown.
Around 200,000 people saw their flights cancelled on Monday after a technical fault with National Air Traffic Services systems led to 1,500 planes being grounded and many thousands more delayed.
Despite the issue being fixed on Monday, the major disruption to tightly-packed bank holiday schedules continues to cause chaos in UK flight schedules – with many passengers now facing the prospect of being stuck overseas for more than a week.
Andy Gregory has the full story:
Pregnant woman in Greece for anniversary among thousands now left stranded abroad
More: EasyJet to send ‘rescue flights’ for passengers stranded by air traffic control chaos
Tuesday 29 August 2023 20:33 , Eleanor Noyce
As hundreds of flights were cancelled on Tuesday, easyJet confirmed it would operate five repatriation flights to London Gatwick over the coming days.
The rescue flights will operate from Palma and Faro on 30 August, Tenerife and Enfidha on 31 August and Rhodes on 1 September.
More than 1,200 flights to, from and within the UK were grounded by the failure at the national air traffic provider Nats, with around 200,000 people sleeping at airports overnight.
Read more:
EasyJet to send ‘rescue flights’ for passengers stranded by air traffic control chaos
NATS statement appears to confirm reports that a ‘dodgy flight plan’ was responsible: Simon Calder analyses
Tuesday 29 August 2023 20:02 , Eleanor Noyce
National Air Traffic Services (NATS) has confirmed that the air traffic control failure was caused by flight data received by the company, with both primary and backup systems responding by suspending automatic processing.
“I would like to apologise again for our technical failure yesterday. While we resolved the problem quickly, I am very conscious that the knock-on effects at such a busy time of year are still being felt by many people travelling in and out of the UK”, a statement from NATS CEO Martin Rolfe read.
A dodgy flight plan filed by a French airline may have sparked the major systems meltdown, sources told The Independent earlier on Tuesday.
NATS’ statement appears to confirm reports that a “dodgy flight plan” was responsible, travel correspondent Simon Calder believes. Mr Rolfe says: “Initial investigations into the problem show it relates to some of the flight data we received.”
The NATS chief executive seems to suggest that the organisation’s complex IT system, defaulted to fail-safe mode: “Our systems, both primary and the back-ups, responded by suspending automatic processing to ensure that no incorrect safety-related information could be presented to an air traffic controller or impact the rest of the air traffic system.”
NATS will now face questions about why its system cannot simply reject flight plans that contain anomalies, rather than shutting down.
Air traffic control failure caused by ‘flight data received by National Air Traffic Services'
Tuesday 29 August 2023 19:48 , Eleanor Noyce
The air traffic control failure was caused by flight data received by National Air Traffic Services (Nats), with both primary and back-up systems responding by suspending automatic processing, chief executive Martin Rolfe said.
Hundreds of flights to and from UK airports were cancelled again on Tuesday as airlines struggled to recover from the hours-long failure of the National Air Traffic Services system on bank holiday Monday, blamed on a technical fault.
What will the ‘temporary alleviations to allow night flights’ policy look like in practice?
Tuesday 29 August 2023 19:30 , Eleanor Noyce
With aviation chaos this week, the transport secretary, Mark Harper, said he was going to put in place “temporary alleviations to allow night flights” at some airports. What does this mean in practice? Simon Calder explains.
The one major UK airport with significant night flight restrictions is London Heathrow. No departures are scheduled between 10.50pm and 6am, nor arrivals between 10.55pm and 4.40am. Note those are scheduled times, and arrivals can vary; Heathrow also has a voluntary ban in place that prevents flights from landing before 4.30am. Some arrivals from South Africa and Australia are held on the ground before departure so they don’t arrive too early.
At an airport with 1,300 movements a day, though, things can go awry. Airlines have some discretion to operate out of the “permitted” hours up to certain limits; sometimes even with only mild disruption, departures may stray beyond 11pm, and I have been on a delayed Dublin-Heathrow flight on British Airways that touched down at 1pm.
The whole point, of course, is to limit the noise that residents in west London and east Berkshire endure. Ministers balance that aim against a need to get thousands of people to where they need to be. Temporary alleviations, as many people living close to Heathrow will testify, are far from unusual.
What is unusual is that the government mentioned it. With the extreme disruption that the air-traffic control meltdown caused, allowing extended use of Europe’s busiest airport will help airlines (particularly BA) to get back on track. On Monday night there were a number of arrivals well after midnight, and the same is likely to happen on Tuesday.
The issue shows the overstretch in airport infrastructure in London – and may intensify the debate over a third runway at Heathrow, to build in a little more resilience (and significantly increase the number of flights).
easyJet lays on rescue flights
Tuesday 29 August 2023 19:12 , Eleanor Noyce
Britain’s biggest budget airline, easyJet, will operate five repatriation flights to London Gatwick over the coming days.
The rescue flights will operate from Palma and Faro on 30 August, Tenerife and Enfidha on 31 August and Rhodes on 1 September.
“Following the UK ATC systems issue on Monday, easyJet is now operating normally,” easyJet said.
“We have been providing customers with assistance and hotel accommodation and advising anyone who has needed to make their own hotel or alternative travel arrangements that they will be reimbursed.
“During this traditionally very busy week for travel, options for returning to the UK are more limited on some routes and so easyJet will be operating five repatriation flights to London Gatwick over the coming days from Palma and Faro on August 30, and Tenerife and Enfidha on Thursday August 31 and from Rhodes on Friday September 1.
“We are also operating larger aircraft on key routes including Faro, Ibiza, Dalaman and Tenerife to provide some additional 700 seats this week.
“Although this situation was outside of our control, we are sorry for the difficulty this has caused for our customers and remain focused on doing all possible to assist and repatriate them. Customers will be moved onto repatriation flights and notified directly.”
Simon Calder: What is causing the air traffic control chaos? The authorities have some explaining to do
Tuesday 29 August 2023 19:10 , Eleanor Noyce
It’s the £80m question: Why are airlines facing enormous financial losses while their passengers endure extreme distress?
The last week of August is a time of high demand for air travel, especially from returning holidaymakers. Because of the UK’s limited airport infrastructure, especially in southeast England, there is precious little slack in the system: Heathrow and Gatwick are, respectively, the busiest two-runway and single-runway airports in the world.
So the UK’s normally well-regarded air traffic control (ATC) system needed to be working perfectly on bank holiday Monday.
Read more:
Simon Calder: What is causing the air traffic control chaos?
Everything you need to know about air traffic control failure on Tuesday as more flights cancelled
Tuesday 29 August 2023 18:50 , Eleanor Noyce
As airlines struggle to recover from the four-hour failure of the main air-traffic control system across the UK on Monday, airlines are making dozens more cancellations.
Aircraft and flight crew are out of position after the severe disruption on bank holiday Monday.
More than 1,200 flights to, from and within the UK were grounded by the failure at Nats, the national air-traffic provider. Around 200,000 people are starting the day where they did not wish to be – with many sleeping overnight at airports.
Simon Calder reports:
Everything you need to know about air traffic control failure on Tuesday
Ask Me Anything: Put your questions to Simon Calder as flight cancellations cause mayhem across Europe
Tuesday 29 August 2023 18:30 , Eleanor Noyce
Flight cancellations are continuing as airlines struggle to recover from the four-hour failure of the main air-traffic control system across the UK on bank holiday Monday.
The outage left aircraft and flight crew out of position after the severe disruption on Monday 28 August, with an estimated 1,200 flights to and from the UK cancelled.
Britain’s biggest budget airline, easyJet, grounded more than 80 flights on Tuesday, while British Airways also grounded more than 60 flights.
Ask our travel expert for advice on your rights and what to do if your flight is cancelled:
Simon Calder to answer your holiday questions amid air traffic control chaos
More travel chaos after 300,000 hit by cancellations – and French error blamed for air traffic mayhem
Tuesday 29 August 2023 18:10 , Eleanor Noyce
Passengers hit by the air traffic control meltdown face being stranded abroad for up to a week, as it emerged that an incorrectly-filed flight plan by a French airline may have triggered the outage.
Around 300,000 airline passengers have now been hit by flight cancellations since the hours-long failure of the Nats system on bank holiday Monday. The knock-on effect is set to last for several more days, as under-pressure airlines battle the backlog in a week where millions are already returning to the UK from their summer holidays.
Several sources say the issue may have been caused when a French airline filed a dodgy flight plan that made no digital sense. Instead of the error being rejected, it prompted a shutdown of the entire Nats system – raising questions over how one clerical error could cause such mayhem.
Simon Calder and Andy Gregory report:
More travel chaos as French error blamed for flights mayhem
In pictures: Passengers wait as hundreds of flights cancelled
Tuesday 29 August 2023 17:44 , Eleanor Noyce
Hundreds of flights to and from UK airports were cancelled on Tuesday as airlines struggled to recover from the hours-long failure of the National Air Traffic Services system on bank holiday Monday, blamed on a technical fault.
Most are short-haul departures from London Heathrow, including Athens, Ibiza and Pisa. But transatlantic flights are also affected, with the Heathrow-Nashville and Gatwick-Tampa cancelled.
“It is complicated, which is why it relies on automation and why we’ve had digitalisation come in”, aviation consultant John Strickland explained.
“Systems are meant to be robust. They are pressure tested and that does give a very high level of reliability.
“But as we’ve seen in other parts of the industry, and undoubtedly in other industries too like the banking sector, there is a vulnerability in which relying on IT systems presents.”
Simon Calder: What is causing the air traffic control chaos? The authorities have some explaining to do
Tuesday 29 August 2023 17:20 , Eleanor Noyce
It’s the £80m question: Why are airlines facing enormous financial losses while their passengers endure extreme distress?
The last week of August is a time of high demand for air travel, especially from returning holidaymakers. Because of the UK’s limited airport infrastructure, especially in southeast England, there is precious little slack in the system: Heathrow and Gatwick are, respectively, the busiest two-runway and single-runway airports in the world.
So the UK’s normally well-regarded air traffic control (ATC) system needed to be working perfectly on bank holiday Monday.
Simon Calder reports:
Simon Calder: What is causing the air traffic control chaos?
‘Knock-on effects of yesterday’s disruption are likely to continue over the coming days’, says transport secretary
Tuesday 29 August 2023 17:10 , Eleanor Noyce
On Tuesday afternoon, UK transport secretary Mark Harper chaired a meeting with NATS, the Civil Aviation Authority, airlines, airports, trade bodies and Border Force following ongoing disruption to air traffic control.
The Department for Transport has implemented temporary alleviations to allow night flights at the airports it regulates, with airline and airport chief executives advising that further disruption should be expected in the coming days.
“I echo the apology offered by NATS to everyone caught up in the disruption following yesterday’s technical issue with air traffic control. My priority continues to be making sure passengers get where they need to be as quickly as possible”, Mr Harper said following the meeting.
“I am grateful to airlines, airports and Border Force for the work being done to get passengers to their destinations and to provide support while they wait.
“Airlines are clear about their responsibilities to their customers, and I stand ready to provide further appropriate support from the Government should the industry request it.
“Although the air traffic control system is back up and running, the knock-on effects of yesterday’s disruption are likely to continue over the coming days. Passengers due to travel should check with their airlines before heading to the airport.”
‘Frustrated’ Scottish student stranded at airport overnight amid travel chaos
Tuesday 29 August 2023 17:05 , Eleanor Noyce
A “frustrated and tired” Scottish drama student was left stranded in Amsterdam Airport overnight when an air traffic control glitch saw his flight cancelled, forcing him to sleep there.
Matthew Creed, a 26-year-old drama student from Harthill, became stuck at Schiphol Amsterdam Airport after his flight with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines to Edinburgh was cancelled.
The former drama teacher, who worked in Hong Kong for three years, was initially flying from the former British city to Edinburgh with a stopover in Doha on Qatar Airways - he planned to see his family in Scotland before beginning his master’s degree in drama in London.
When he arrived in Hong Kong, Qatar Airways informed him that his ticket was on standby.
Upon arrival in Doha, he was notified that he did not have a seat on the flight to Edinburgh, which was “nerve-racking” for him.
Qatar then transferred him on a KLM flight to Amsterdam - he arrived at 3am on Monday only to discover the Dutch airliner had cancelled his next flight to Edinburgh.
“(I) got to Amsterdam about three o’clock yesterday, waiting for the next flight about 4.50am, and then realised there was a massive queue in the middle of the airport,” he told the PA news agency.
“People were heading towards the exit or towards desks for KLM, who were operating the flight that Qatar had put me on.
“Then I looked at the board and realised my flight was cancelled.”
Air traffic failure: how much do controllers earn?
Tuesday 29 August 2023 16:50 , Eleanor Noyce
Air traffic controllers are responsible for ensuring all planes and passengers get to their destination safely and on time, but this week a “technical glitch” has delayed hundreds of flights across Britain.
Around 200,000 people started the day on Tuesday where they did not wish to be – with many expecting to be stranded for several days, as airlines struggle to recover from the hours-long failure of the National Air Traffic Services (Nats) system on bank holiday Monday.
Almost 300 flights were cancelled at the UK’s six busiest airports alone on Tuesday. Most were short-haul departures from London Heathrow but some transatlantic flights were also affected.
So how much do air traffic controllers get paid, and what qualifications do they need to do the job?
Alexander Butler has more:
Air traffic failure: how much do controllers earn?
Nearly 300 more flights cancelled after air traffic control glitch
Tuesday 29 August 2023 16:35 , Eleanor Noyce
Tens of thousands more airline passengers suffered flight cancellations on Tuesday due to the knock-on impact of an air traffic control (ATC) fault.
Transport Secretary Mark Harper said it was the worst incident of its kind in “nearly a decade” and announced an “independent review” will be carried out.
The issue started on Monday, when more than a quarter of flights at UK airports were cancelled.
ATC provider National Air Traffic Services (Nats) suffered what it described as a “technical issue” preventing it from automatically processing flight plans.
This resulted in flights to and from UK airports being restricted while the plans were checked manually.
Nats said at 3.15pm on Monday the problem was resolved, but disruption continued into Tuesday as many aircraft and crews were out of position.
Analysis of flight data websites by the PA news agency shows at least 281 flights - including departures and arrivals - were cancelled on Tuesday at the UK’s six busiest airports.
This consisted of 75 at Gatwick, 74 at Heathrow, 63 at Manchester, 28 at Stansted, 23 at Luton and 18 at Edinburgh.
Many other flights were significantly delayed.
Ask Me Anything: Put your questions to Simon Calder as flight cancellations cause mayhem across Europe
Tuesday 29 August 2023 16:20 , Eleanor Noyce
Flight cancellations are continuing as airlines struggle to recover from the four-hour failure of the main air-traffic control system across the UK on bank holiday Monday.
The outage left aircraft and flight crew out of position after the severe disruption on Monday 28 August, with an estimated 1,200 flights to and from the UK cancelled.
Britain’s biggest budget airline, easyJet, grounded more than 80 flights on Tuesday, while British Airways also grounded more than 60 flights.
Ask our travel expert for advice on your rights and what to do if your flight is cancelled:
Simon Calder to answer your holiday questions amid air traffic control chaos
Ryanair boss slams air traffic control chaos as ‘unacceptable'
Tuesday 29 August 2023 16:10 , Eleanor Noyce
Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary has slammed air traffic control (ATC) provider Nats for the “unacceptable” disruption caused over the past two days.
In a video message, the chief executive described Monday as “a very difficult day” with 250 flights cancelled, while a further 70 were axed on Tuesday.
He said: “We have been in contact with UK Nats. We still haven’t had an explanation from them (about) what exactly caused this failure yesterday and where were their back-up systems.
“It’s not acceptable that UK Nats simply allow their computer systems to be taken down and everybody’s flights get cancelled.”
Speaking from the airline’s operations centre at Dublin Airport, Mr O’Leary went on: “We’ve had a very difficult day yesterday due to the UK Nats ATC failure.
“I’m sad to report that we had to cancel about 250 flights affecting the flights of about 40,000 passengers because of long delays to flight plans, crews running out of hours.
“Last night we had 20 aircraft that couldn’t get back to their home bases so they’re out of place for today.
“Today, unfortunately, it looks like we’re going to cancel about another 70 flights.
“That’s a very small number out of the 3,200 flights we’re planning but that doesn’t mean we’re not doing everything we possibly can to try to minimise the disruption for our passengers and their families.”
He added: “We hope by the end of today, Tuesday, that from tomorrow we’ll be running a normal operation.”
Caught in the air traffic control nightmare? Your rights when flights go wrong
Tuesday 29 August 2023 15:39 , Andy Gregory
Hundreds of thousands of passengers booked to travel to or from the UK have had their flights cancelled or delayed after the air-traffic control system was hit by a technical issue.
Here, The Independent’s travel expert Simon Calder explains what you can do if you are caught up in the chaos:
Caught in the air traffic control nightmare? Your rights when flights go wrong
Airlines have responsibility to get customers home, Downing Street says
Tuesday 29 August 2023 15:29 , Andy Gregory
Downing Street has warned that airlines have a responsibility to “get customers back to where they should be”, as thousands of holidaymakers remain stranded.
This could include replacement transport, meals and accommodation until their flight finally takes off, No 10 said.
Passenger will ‘definitely reconsider flying anywhere for a long time'
Tuesday 29 August 2023 15:14 , Andy Gregory
A passenger caught in this week’s travel chaos has warned that she “will definitely reconsider flying anywhere for a long time” – and “dreads to think how Gatwick would handle a real disaster”.
Lynda Racz-Taylor had been part of a dozen-strong group flying from Gatwick to join 16 other family members in Tolouse for their neice’s 30th birthday, which was “ruined” as the air traffic control nightmare unfolded on Monday.
While they have been offered the choice of rebooking or a refund by EasyJet, just three of their original party has been able to rebook new flights due to work and school commitments, with the earliest available on Wednesday evening.
Upon eventually leaving the airport yesterday after the cancellation, they were unable to pick up their cars from the off-site car park, meaning Ms Racz-Taylor’s husband and brothers had to return to the airport this morning to collect them.
Noting that the information desk was “absolutely swamped”, Ms Racz-Taylor told The Independent: “Gatwick and easyJet really need to consider trying some kind of crisis team for these kind of disruptions.
“We got the feeling ‘not my job, [I’m] out of here’, we even overheard airport staff on the shuttle bus saying that. I dread to think how Gatwick would handle a real disaster… after this trip I will definitely reconsider flying anywhere for a long time, it gets worse, air travel is just awful in general.”
Family spends night in Leeds Bradford airport in bid to reach wedding anniversary party
Tuesday 29 August 2023 14:58 , Andy Gregory
Rafal Batko and his family, from Sheffield, spent the night at Leeds Bradford Airport after their flight to Krakow was cancelled.
Mr Batko, who is flying out for his mother and father-in-law’s wedding anniversary party, said: “We’ve been here for 17 hours. We tried to get into a hotel but there was no space because everyone was in the same position.
“It’s stressful but fingers crossed we’ll get on one today. If not we’ll have to go home, we are tired and everything is too expensive to buy.”
11-year-old boy ‘over the moon’ as pilot on grounded plane gives him tour of cockpit
Tuesday 29 August 2023 14:48 , Andy Gregory
With planes suck on the tarmac for hours yesterday, pilots were keeping families entertained by giving children tours of the cockpit as they waited for news of a possible departure.
Gwen Magarotto told The Independent that her son Spencer and his family were forced to “sit it out” on the tarmac at Corfu after their flight to Exeter was delayed.
But for her 11-year-old grandson Danny, who “adores planes”, the experience became the “highlight of his holiday” after the “kind” pilot allowed him to sit in the plane’s cockpit while explaining what all of the various dials and mechanisms were.
Ms Margarotto said her grandson had been “over the moon”, but was soon left “freezing” once their plane finally touched down back in Exeter following their holiday in the Greek sun.
You can read more stories from those caught up in yesterday’s chaos here:
Holidaymakers stuck in travel hell as UK traffic control fault grounds flights
More than 1,500 UK flights cancelled on Monday
Tuesday 29 August 2023 14:14 , Andy Gregory
Aviation analytics company Cirium said 790 departures and 785 arrivals were cancelled across all UK airports on Monday.
That was equivalent to around 27 per cent of all planned flights and means that around 250,000 people were affected.
Downing Street not ruling out French airline error may be to blame for meltdown
Tuesday 29 August 2023 13:59 , Andy Gregory
Our Politics and Whitehall Editor Kate Devlin reports:
Downing Street has said that airlines should be “proactively” communicating with passengers about their rights and taking “every possible steps” to communicate with their passengers about the disruption they are facing.
And No 10 did not rule out that an error by a French airline could have caused the chaos.
What is causing the air traffic control chaos? The authorities have some explaining to do
Tuesday 29 August 2023 13:50 , Andy Gregory
It’s the £80m question: Why are airlines facing enormous financial losses while their passengers endure extreme distress?
The last week of August is a time of high demand for air travel, especially from returning holidaymakers. Because of the UK’s limited airport infrastructure, especially in southeast England, there is precious little slack in the system: Heathrow and Gatwick are, respectively, the busiest two-runway and single-runway airports in the world.
So the UK’s normally well-regarded air traffic control (ATC) system needed to be working perfectly on bank holiday Monday.
The Independent’s travel expert Simon Calder looks at what may have gone wrong in his latest Plane Talk analysis:
Simon Calder: What is causing the air traffic control chaos?
Hundreds of flights cancelled again on Tuesday
Tuesday 29 August 2023 13:29 , Andy Gregory
Hundreds of flights have been cancelled again today, after some 1,200 flights were grounded on Monday in what marked the worst day for UK aviation since the Iceland volcano in 2010 .
Analysis of flight data websites by the PA news agency shows at least 281 flights were cancelled on Tuesday at the UK’s six busiest airports.
This consisted of 75 at Gatwick, 74 at Heathrow, 63 at Manchester, 28 at Stansted, 23 at Luton and 18 at Edinburgh.
Many other flights were significantly delayed.
French airline’s ‘dodgy flight plan set system meltdown in motion'
Tuesday 29 August 2023 13:20 , Andy Gregory
The Independent’s travel correspondent Simon Calder reports:
Several sources have told me that a French airline filed a dodgy flight plan that made no digital sense. The Nats system should automatically have identified an anomaly and spat out the plan, saying “try again”.
Yet instead, the flight plan was ingested and set in train a shutdown of the entire system. The closest analogy I can come up with is a spanner being thrown into an extremely well-tuned machine – let’s say an aircraft engine – and shutting the whole thing down. The big question Nats has to answer is: why wasn’t there protection against said spanner, and what is being done to avoid a repeat?
Safety was never an issue: UK air-traffic control has a well-deserved reputation for superb professionalism. But with so much emotional and financial cost being paid by passengers and airlines, the air-traffic control provider has some explaining to do. Very soon.
ICYMI: Everything you need to know about air traffic control failure on Tuesday as more flights cancelled
Tuesday 29 August 2023 13:00 , Maanya Sachdeva
If you’re just joining us, here’s everything you need to know about the air-traffic control failure that led to thousands of flights being cancelled across the UK on Monday:
Everything you need to know about air traffic control failure on Tuesday
Ryanair CEO says Nats failure is ‘not acceptable’
Tuesday 29 August 2023 12:31 , Maanya Sachdeva
Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary has said it’s “not acceptable” that the national air-traffic control service “simply allow their computer systems to be taken down”, in a statement posted on X (formerly Twitter).
“It’s not acceptable that UK Nats simply allow their computer systems to be taken down, and everybody’s flights get cancelled or delayed,” Mr O’Leary said in a video statement, addressing the travel chaos that gripped the Bank Holiday weekend.
Michael O'Leary, CEO of the Ryanair Group gives an update on delays/cancellations due to UK ATC failure on Aug 28 pic.twitter.com/HoebuSNqBy
— Ryanair (@Ryanair) August 29, 2023
No 10 addresses speculation over cause of air-traffic control outage
Tuesday 29 August 2023 12:16 , Maanya Sachdeva
Downing Street did not rule out the possibility that an inputting error by a French airline could have caused the disruption.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “There’s going to be, think you’ll know that there’s going to be an investigation by the CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) and a report shared with Government.
“I think (Transport Secretary) Mark Harper confirmed this morning he’ll be getting that in days.
“I’m not going to pre-empt that. I’ve seen, obviously, various bits of speculation, but I’m not going to pre-empt the work that needs to be done.”
But he added that experts had confirmed it was a “technical issue, not a cybersecurity incident”.
Asked if officials would speak to counterparts across the English Channel, the spokesman said “you would expect them to be speaking regularly” with other countries “but I’m not aware of any specific conversations with French counterparts”.
