Gatwick hit by further air traffic control staff shortages
James ChappleDozens of flights were cancelled at Gatwick airport on Sunday (8 September) owing to further shortages of air traffic control (ATC) staff.
More than 100 flights were cancelled, including more than 60 easyJet services, with the disruption carrying over into Monday (9 September).
The UK’s ATC provider Nats put the issues down to "short-notice staff absence" as well as European ATC restrictions owing to adverse weather.
Nats said its decision to impose temporary air traffic restrictions was made on safety grounds and to minimise disruption, The Independent reports.
Ryanair, which operates from around 20 UK airports including Gatwick, has renewed its calls for Nats chief executive Martin Rolfe to resign – or for new transport secretary Louise Haigh to remove him from his post.
It follows several incidents of ATC disruption at Gatwick over the past year, and the wholesale UK ATC failure last August following the bank holiday weekend.
"UK Nats staff shortages caused multiple flight delays and cancellations at Gatwick airport yesterday (8 September)," said Ryanair. "Airlines and passengers deserve better."
The budget carrier said multiple flights were disrupted on Sunday, affecting "thousands of passengers".
The disruption at Gatwick continued on Monday, where around another 20 flights – mostly easyJet – were cancelled. Live departure information from Gatwick shows several several services suffering significant delays.
A 6.05am Tui flight to Thessaloniki was yet to depart at 9.15am, while the 6.20am British Airways flight to Cagliari eventually departed at 9.11am. EasyJet’s 6.45am flights to Bilbao and Geneva were both delayed by around two-and-a-half hours.
Separately, British Airways cancelled hundreds of flights – mainly from Heathrow – on Friday (6 September) and over the weekend, including more than a dozen more departures and arrivals on Monday morning.
According to aviation analytics firm Cirium, 427 departing flights across the UK were cancelled last week (2-8 September) – around 2% of all those scheduled, a 223% week-on-week increase from 132.
The largest number of cancellations were at Heathrow (165) followed by Gatwick (87) and London City (36). A further 408 arriving flights were cancelled during the same period, again, around 2% of all those scheduled.
Cirium also confirmed 53 departing flights were cancelled at Gatwick on Sunday, 13% of all scheduled departures, and 52 arrivals, 12% of all scheduled arrivals.
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