BRUSSELS: European air travellers faced mass disruption on Tuesday witharound half of all flights at risk of delays following a technical problemat Eurocontrol, the agency in charge of the continent’s skies.
Several of the EU’s biggest airports, including Amsterdam’s Schiphol,warned of problems and advised passengers to check on their flights becauseof the computer breakdown.
“Today 29,500 flights were expected in the European network. Approximatelyhalf of those could have some delay as a result of the system outage,” saida statement from Eurocontrol.
The Brussels-based agency, which coordinates European air traffic controloperators, said the cause “has been identified and action is underway toreturn to normal operations” but that that would not happen until “latethis evening”.
The breakdown comes a day after the Easter holidays when many travellersare on the move around Europe, and as commuters across France faceddisruption from a massive rail strike in protest at President EmmanuelMacron’s reforms.
“We have never had anything like this before,” a Eurocontrol spokesman toldAFP.
Brussels airport said departures were limited to 10 flights an hour. TheBelgian airport manages 650 flights a day, according to its website.
Several airports across the continent warned of problems, with Schipholsaying that the “system failure” at Eurocontrol could have “possibleconsequences” for departures.
Helsinki, Prague and Copenhagen airports also said traffic was facingdelays.
Eurocontrol said that there had been a “failure of the Enhanced TacticalFlow Management System”, which tracks and manages traffic demand across thecontinent.
“Contingency procedures are being put in place which will have the effectof reducing the capacity of the European network by approximately 10percent,” the agency said in an initial statement.
It added that flight plans filed before 1026 GMT were “lost” and askedairlines to refile them.
It added that air traffic control had not been directly affected and “thereare no safety implications arising from this incident”.