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Date Published: 01/09/2023

UK air traffic control fault creates flight chaos in Spain

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Passengers to and from Spain have reported flight delays of several hours

UK air traffic control fault creates flight chaos in Spain

A “technical issue” with air traffic control systems in the UK has stranded thousands of holidaymakers both at home and abroad on Monday August 28, with countless tourists reporting that their flights from Spain have been delayed by as much as eight hours.

Britain’s National Air Traffic Services (NATS) issued a statement before lunch on Monday claiming that the technical issue is affecting the "ability to automatically process flight plans" while insisting that staff are working “as quickly as possible” to resolve the situation.

"Until our engineers have resolved this, flight plans are being input manually which means we cannot process them at the same volume, hence we have applied traffic flow restrictions," NATS said.

However, the UK service stressed that "UK airspace is not closed, we have had to apply air traffic flow restrictions which ensures we can maintain safety".

Despite these assurances, several airlines including Ryanair, Aerlingus and easyJet have all posted notices warning passengers that considerable delays can be expected.

In Alicante, British passengers hoping to fly back to the UK are being advised of hours-long waits.

“We are with easyJet and supposed to be going back to England at 23.40 tonight flight now says 10am tomorrow morning,” one person wrote on social media.

“We are sat waiting at Leeds airport. No flights leaving since this morning. Boarding some planes but not taking off. Closed security due to airport being full. Doesn't look promising for a resolution anytime soon,” another added.

Still more disgruntled travellers are sitting on the runway awaiting departure: “Sitting on tarmac from before 12 and still sitting on it. Don't know when we can take off, captain said could be 6.30pm arrive 10pm in Alicante. So a long wait,” a third social media user wrote.

Travel journalist Simon Calder said that there is currently “no certainty about when it is going to be fixed” and that, more worryingly, officials don’t seem to “know at this stage what caused the problem nor indeed how to fix it".

"I fear there are going to be an awful lot of people waking up tomorrow where they don't want to be," he said.

Meanwhile, Ryanair said it will be "forced to delay/cancel a number of flights", while Wizz Air also said there could be "heavy delays and possible cancellations".

In other news: Mother of suspended FA president goes on hunger strike inside Spanish church

Image: Archive

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