A technical problem detected in flight planning systems in the UK has resulted in hundreds of flights being canceled and delayed this Monday, coinciding with the celebration of a bank holiday in the country and the repatriation after the summer holidays. The bug, which has caused disruptions to major airports and airlines including British Airways, Ryanair, EasyJet, Virgin Atlantic and Aer Lingus, was “identified” and “fixed” hours later, according to the National Air Traffic Service (NATS, in). English) of the country, although it has not yet been determined how long it will take for normal air traffic to be restored.
“We are working closely with the airlines and airports to manage affected flights as efficiently as possible,” the agency said in a statement released this afternoon, noting that its technicians “will carefully monitor the performance of the system, while we “return to normal operations”. NATS explains that the problem encountered in the flight planning system “affected the system’s ability to process flight plans automatically, meaning they had to be processed manually, which is not possible at the same volume and therefore required airflow restrictions.” “Our priority is always that every flight in the UK remains safe and we sincerely apologize for the disruption this has caused,” the statement continued.
A spokesman for Heathrow, western Europe’s busiest airport, said it was working with authorities to minimize the impact on passengers. There have been multiple delays and cancellations in Gatwick, south London. British Airways has said its flights have been significantly disrupted and that “significant changes” have had to be made to planning. Ryanair has reported that some of its flights have been affected.
Complaints abound on social media from passengers trapped on planes already waiting on the runways or at airports in Spain, Portugal, Greece and Israel. One victim told Portal that he waited on the plane for two hours without the plane taking off and that they were eventually taken off the plane after reporting the delay would last between 8 and 12 hours.
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