A technical problem detected in the flight planning systems in the United Kingdom has caused hundreds of flights to be canceled and delayed this Monday, coinciding with the celebration of a holiday in the country and the return operation after the summer holidays. The fault, which has caused disruptions at major airports and airlines such as British Airways, Ryanair, EasyJet, Virgin Atlantic and Aer Lingus, has been “identified” and “resolved” hours later, according to the National Air Traffic Service (NATS, in English) of the country, although it has not been determined how long it will take for normal flights to be restored.
“We are working closely with the airlines and airports to manage the affected flights in the most efficient way possible,” the agency said in a statement released this afternoon, where it noted that its technicians “will carefully monitor the performance of the system while we return to operations normal”. NATS explains that the problem that occurred in the flight planning system “affected the system’s ability to automatically process flight plans, which means that they had to be processed manually, which cannot be done at the same volume and, therefore, airflow restrictions were required. “Our priority is always that every flight in the UK remains safe and we sincerely apologize for the disruption this is causing,” the note added.
A spokesman for Heathrow, Western Europe’s busiest airport, said they were working with authorities to minimize the impact on passengers. In Gatwick, in south London, there have been multiple delays and cancellations. British Airways has indicated that its flights have been significantly disrupted and that it has had to make “major changes” to planning. Ryanair has reported that some of its flights have been affected.
Social networks have been filled with complaints from passengers trapped in planes that were already on the runways waiting for takeoff or at airports, both in Spain, Portugal, Greece and Israel. An affected person has explained to the agency Reuters that they have waited two hours inside the plane without it taking off and that they have finally gotten off the plane after communicating that the delay was going to last between 8 and 12 hours.
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