Air traffic in chaos due to a failure that affected the UK’s air traffic control systems and is affecting hundreds of flights, including those departing from and arriving at Fiumicino and Ciampino airports.
Aeroporti di Roma, on Monday, confirmed that “due to a failure in the United Kingdom’s air traffic control systems, some flights may be subject to delays and/or cancellations”, advising travelers to “contact the relevant airline for information on your flight”.
Notice then confirmed by the departures board in real time: first delayed and then canceled the afternoon flights to Heathrow operated by Ita, as well as the 18.35 operated by British Airways. Ryanair’s flight departing from Ciampino and several incoming flights were also cancelled.
It is not clear what caused the failure. The Nation Air Traffic Service (Nats), the British body that deals with the management of air flows, explained on the sto that “we have identified and solved the technical problem that this morning affected our flight planning system. We are working closely with the airlines and airports to manage the affected flights as efficiently as possible. Our engineers will closely monitor system performance when we return to normal operations.”
The body clarified that the failure “affected the system’s ability to process flight plans automatically, meaning that plans had to be processed manually, which cannot be done as quickly, hence the need to traffic flow restrictions.
This article is originally published on romatoday.it
