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As airlines struggle to recover from the four-hour failure of the main air-traffic control system across the UK on Monday, airlines are making dozens more cancellations.
Aircraft and flight crew are out of position after the severe disruption on bank holiday Monday, when an estimated 1,200 flights to and from the UK were cancelled by the failure at Nats, the national air-traffic provider.
Around 200,000 people are starting the day where they did not wish to be – and more cancellations are happening.
Britain’s biggest budget airline, easyJet, has grounded more than 80 flights on Tuesday. Three dozen are at Gatwick, including flights serving holiday destinations such as Athens and Venice.
British Airways has grounded more than 60 flights on Tuesday.
Most are short-haul departures from London Heathrow, including Athens, Ibiza and Pisa. But transatlantic flights are also affected, with the Heathrow-Nashville and Gatwick-Tampa cancelled.
National Air Traffic Services (Nats) said on Monday at 3.15pm that it had “identified and remedied” the technical issue, but later warned the ensuing disruption could last further into the week. Nats also said the failure would be investigated “very thoroughly”.
Have you been affected by delays? If so email andy.gregory@independent.co.uk
£80m: estimated cost to airlines of air-traffic control shutdown
How much is the air-traffic control failure likely to cost airlines?
Simon Calder, travel correspondent of The Independent, has done a back-of-a-boarding pass calculation.
It now seems likely that at least 300,000 passengers will be stranded for at least one night.
All are entitled to a hotel room until the airline can bring them back. Even if only half of them manage to find one, assuming an average two-night stay at £100 per person – plus £40 for meals – the care costs could total £42m.
The other big cost is lost revenue: in the last week of August airlines have been commanding extremely high fares. If only 5 per cent of the 3.5 million passengers expected on UK-touching flights were to cancel, assuming a £200 average fare, airlines could lose £35m.
Add a conservative £3m for extra staff costs and sundries, and losses to reach £80m.
The airlines that will sustain the highest losses are British Airways, easyJet and Ryanair.
A British Airways plane taxis at Heathrow Airport in London, Britain, 28 August 2023
Sunak says airlines have to honour their commitments to passengers.
Prime minister Rishi Sunak said transport secretary Mark Harper would be talking to airlines about their responsibilities to passengers hit by air traffic control disruption.
He told broadcasters: “I know people will be enormously frustrated by the disruption that’s impacting them.
“Thankfully things like this are rare and the issue itself was fixed in a matter of hours, but the disruption obviously is continuing and will last for a little while longer.
“The Transport Secretary is in constant dialogue with all the industry participants, he will be talking to airlines specifically later today and making sure that they support passengers to get home as quickly as possible.”
He said passengers had rights with regards to accommodation and alternative flights and Mr Harper would be making sure airlines “honour those obligations”.
Stansted and East Midlands airports operating ‘near normal’ flight schedules
Both Stansted and East Midlands airports have said they’re operating “near normal” flight schedules following the air-traffic control fault that led to 1,500 flight cancellations across the UK on Bank Holiday Monday.
“Some delays and cancellations may still occur, so we continue to advise passengers to check the status of their flight with their airline before travelling to the airport,” their statements read.
CAA addresses outage that triggered 1,500 flight cancellations
The interim chief executive of the Civil Aviation Authority has addressed the air traffic control fault that led to 1,500 flights being cancelled on Bank Holiday Monday.
Rob Bishton said: “We understand the challenges many consumers continue to experience when flights are delayed or cancelled following yesterday’s technical issue that impacted the [national air-traffic control service] Nats flight planning system.
“Passengers who continue to be impacted can find information about what they are entitled to on our website. In the event of delays or cancellations, passengers will be expected to be provided with food and drink as well as accommodation if delayed overnight.
“As part of our regulatory oversight of its activities, we continue to engage with NATS and once its investigation is fully complete, an incident report will be provided to the UK Civil Aviation Authority.
“The report’s outcomes will then be shared with the Secretary of State for Transport,” he added.
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Data reveals 1,500 flights were cancelled due to air-traffic control failure
The final score of flight cancellations from Monday’s air-traffic control failure reveals a picture even worse than expected.
The aviation analytics firm Cirium reports that 790 flights due to depart from UK airports were cancelled on Monday, while 785 arrivals were axed. The figures represent 27 per cent of all operations.
Heathrow saw the highest number of cancellations, followed by Gatwick and Manchester.
One UK airline performed remarkably well amid all the chaos. The Scottish carrier Loganair cancelled 30 flights out of 160 planned (19 per cent) – but for those that did depart, better than two out of three were on time.
Bristol-Aberdeen passengers actually arrived in Aberdeen half-an-hour early.
Passengers detail ordeal amid travel disruptions following UK air traffic control outage
Passengers stuck in the UK and abroad described their frustration amid travel chaos, as some said they had no idea when or how they would get to their destination.
Rory Dollard, 40, cricket correspondent for the PA news agency, was stuck at Bergerac Dordogne Perigord airport in France and was told it may take up to six days before he and his family – his wife Joanne, 40, and children Emily, 10, and Arthur, eight – could return home to Skipton, North Yorkshire.
Lyudmila Hristova, 57, said her and her husband’s plans to attend her niece’s wedding in Bulgaria were “ruined” after BA cancelled their 2pm flight from Heathrow to Sofia.
And a German couple were considering returning home by train after their flight from London to Stuttgart was cancelled.
Myria Mebold, 36, also said that British Airways “didn’t know anything at all” when she and her husband asked about the situation and their flight.
Major UK airlines such as Tui and BA warned of “significant delays” for passengers amid changes to schedules.
Passengers were urged by airlines to check before they leave for the airport as their flight times may have changed.
British mother stranded in France may not get back to nine-month-old baby ‘for a week’
A British mother stranded in France has said she may not be able to get back home to see her nine-month-old baby after a technical fault in UK air traffic control has seen hundreds of flights cancelled and delayed.
Those stranded in the French town of Limoges say it’s been a “nightmare” trying to find alternative routes back home.
The British mother said: “I am in a bit of a pickle as I have got a nine-month-old baby at home and this is the longest I have ever been away. I don’t know what to do with myself.
“If I think about it too much I’ll cry.”
Caught in the air traffic control nightmare? Your rights when flights go wrong
Simon Calder has updated travel advice for the 250,000 passengers whose flights have been cancelled.
If you’ve been affected by the disruptions, you should know the airline must provide alternative transport as soon as possible, including on a rival carrier if need be.
The operator must also arrange a hotel room and meals for passengers, if their flights are cancelled.
A full breakdown of all your rights when flights go wrong can be found here:
UK air travel disruption to last for days, Mark Harper says
British transport minister Mark Harper said it would take days to resolve the widespread disruption to flights into and out of the country after air traffic control systems were hit by a technical problem.
Hundreds of flights were cancelled or delayed on Monday – one of the country’s busiest travel days – after air traffic controllers were forced to switch to manual systems.
“There is going to be some knock on impact today and I suspect for another few days as airlines get their planes and get their services back to normal,” Mr Harper told the BBC on Tuesday.
The Independent’s Travel Correspondent Simon Calder on Tuesday reported airlines had grounded dozens more flights following the bank holiday travel disruptions.
Transport secretary Mark Harper
https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMicGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmluZGVwZW5kZW50LmNvLnVrL3RyYXZlbC9uZXdzLWFuZC1hZHZpY2UvYWlycG9ydC1kZWxheXMtZmxpZ2h0cy11ay1haXItdHJhZmZpYy1jb250cm9sLWIyNDAwOTI3Lmh0bWzSAQA?oc=5
2023-08-29 10:40:01Z
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