BRITAIN-AIRLINES/AIRPORTS Air traffic control failure disrupts flights over Britain

Record ID: 862334

  • Title: BRITAIN-AIRLINES/AIRPORTS Air traffic control failure disrupts flights over Britain
  • Date: 12th December 2014
  • Summary: CITY AIRPORT, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (DECEMBER 12, 2014) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PLANES ON TARMAC AT CITY AIRPORT PLANE TAKING OFF
  • Embargoed: 27th December 2014 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: United Kingdom
  • City:
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA9NC5KGHM12SONBDKBS9D4HDY2
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE THIS EDIT IS PART MUTE
    Hundreds of flights to and from London were disrupted on Friday (December 12) by a technical failure at England's main air traffic control centre. that a senior government minister described as "simply unacceptable."
    Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin said he had demanded a full explanation for the glitch that forced authorities to limit access to the country's airspace at one of the busiest times of the year.
    Flights in and out of Heathrow, which calls itself the world's busiest international airport, were halted for at least an hour before it said operations were beginning to resume.
    "UK airspace has not been closed, but airspace capacity has been restricted in order to manage the situation," the National Air Traffic Service (NATS) said on its website.
    It later said the system had been restored, but that it would take time for operations to get back to normal.
    Gatwick, another major London airport south of the capital, said flights were departing but with delays. Stansted airport, the city's third busiest, also said in a tweet that departing flights were resuming.
    It was the second such incident involving the NATS centre at Swanwick in southern England in just over a year. Swanwick is one of NATS' two main centres. The other is at Prestwick in Scotland.
    Last December, thousands of travellers were delayed at major airports across England when the night operating system at Swanwick failed properly to switch over to daytime mode.
    NATS said it was still investigating the cause of Friday's disruption but denied media reports it had been caused by a power outage.
    As Heathrow is a major hub for international transfers, the disruption was likely to be felt far beyond the UK. Over 67 million passengers travel through the airport annually on services offered by 90 airlines to over 180 destinations in more than 90 countries, according to its website.
    Airports in Birmingham and Manchester, in central and northern England, said they were unaffected by the airspace closure and were ready to accept diverted flights.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2014. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register