Euro travel meltdown
Millions grounded by air computer glitch as strikers bring rail misery across France
MILLIONS of travellers were delayed by an IT failure at an air traffic control centre yesterday.
Up to half of flights around Europe were postponed or cancelled after a computer systems meltdown.
Brussels-based Eurocontrol, which coordinates flights across the continent, said the glitch meant all flight plans filed before 11.26am UK time had been lost.
Airlines had to refile their plans for flights that had not yet departed.
This caused departure slots to be rationed, leading to delays of up to three hours for passengers flying from the UK and cancellations at airports including Luton and London City.
The failure came as air and rail strikes in France triggered more travel chaos for holidaymakers.
This included the cancellation of 15 Eurostar services yesterday, with another 12 cancelled today.
Eurocontrol said: ‘Today 29,500 flights were expected in the European network. Approximately half of those could have some delay as a result of the system outage.’
The firm said its ‘ contingency procedures … will have the effect of reducing the capacity of the Europrogressing pean network by approximately 10 per cent’. It added that safety had not been compromised. Eurocontrol revealed there has been a ‘failure’ of its Enhanced Tactical Flow Management System in a message on Twitter. Pilots and air traffic controllers across Europe were told: ‘All attempts to reactivate ETFMS proved unsuccessful.’ Later it tweeted that the issue ‘has been identified and work is to recover the system’. UK air traffic control provider Nats gets information from Eurocontrol about incoming flights from Europe.
The IT glitch caused major disruption to British travellers’ journeys. Although Gatwick said it was still assessing the impact, 59 per cent of flights from the airport were delayed between 3pm and 4pm, according to airline data company FlightStats. The airport said there would also be disruption yesterday evening.
London City was among the worst-affected UK airports. As well as a significant number of delays, by mid-afternoon yesterday it said 15 flights to and from Europe had been cancelled.
Luton-based carrier easyJet said ten flights were delayed for between one and three hours, with 16 flights delayed as a knock-on effect caused by the initial delays. It promised to provide refreshments to those facing long delays. A spokesman said: ‘While the situation is outside of its control, easyJet apologises for any inconvenience caused by the delays.’
Heathrow said there had been ‘no impact’.
Last night Eurocontrol said its system was up and running again at 7pm. It apologised and said it had had only one similar ‘outage’ in more than 20 years, in 2000.
Nats said the problem was not related to its planned airspace capacity restrictions which come into force today as a new technology system is introduced.
Tourists have been warned of the prospect of flight delays this week as the organisation banishes paper from its control centre as part of a £700million re-vamp.
The IT glitch came as French rail operator SNCF warned of a second day of disruption today amid a three-month rolling strike. Just one in seven high- speed TGV trains will be running on average, and just one in five regional trains, it said.
Air France passengers flying from Heathrow, Manchester and Edinburgh to Paris were among at least 50,000 travellers affected yesterday by another strike over pay.