EU air traffic control crash hits thousands of flights

Eurocontrol, which coordinates air traffic for more than 40 countries including all 28 EU member states, confirmed it had suffered a failure of its Enhanced Tactical Flow Management System.

The crash, said Eurocontrol, has reduced Europe’s air capacity by around 10%, with around half of the 29,500 flights scheduled for Tuesday potentially facing “some delay”.

Furthermore, the outage has also threatened to compound delays and disruption at Heathrow and Gatwick airports, with the UK’s own air traffic control National Air Traffic Services (NATS) preparing to overhaul its systems starting Wednesday (April 4).

NATS, based in Swanwick, Hampshire, will move from a partially paper-based flight information system to a completely digital setup, EXCDS.

Eurocontrol has said it has identified the fault and hoped to resume “normal operations” by Tuesday evening.

However, it later added its systems may not be "fully up and running" until Wednesday (April 4) and initially said "all attempts to reactivate ETFMS proved unsuccessful".

“Flight plans filed before 10.26am UTC were lost and aircraft operators have been requested to refile these flight plans for all aircraft that have not yet departed,” said Eurocontrol.

“The contingency plan will be maintained for the coming few hours until we are certain sufficient data is in the system to allow it to operate completely correctly.

“Today [Tuesday], 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 system regulates the flow of flights around Europe, Eurocontrol explained, adding there were no safety implications arising from the outage.

However, with Eurocontrol responsible for nearly 30,000 flights daily, some 10% of which could be affected, hundreds of thousands of passengers have been left facing disruption.

A number of UK airports and airlines confirmed the issue had impacted on service.

Said Ryanair in a statement: “Due to a Eurocontrol ATC failure, affecting all airlines across Europe, some flights are currently experiencing delays. Further delays are likely.

"We apologise for any inconvenience caused by this ATC failure, which is entirely beyond our control, and we are working hard to minimise the disruption to our operations.”

Ryanair later added it had been forced to cancel "a small number of flights".

Birmingham Airport, meanwhile, wrote on Twitter: “Due to a European air traffic issue, the number of flights allowed to operate to and from Birmingham are currently restricted.”

Dublin Airport added: “A systems failure Eurocontrol, the organisation that manages air traffic control services across Europe, may cause some delays to the flight schedule at Dublin Airport. Passengers are advised to check latest flight information with their airline.”

From Wednesday, NATS warned some flights would experience delays to allow its air traffic controllers to bed in and get used to the new EXCDS system: “We apologise in advance to any passengers who are affected,” said the controller.

NATS has also said the switch over would affect communities around Heathrow and Gatwick during the first ten days of the transition where residents could notice some flights earlier in the morning and late at night.