UK flight delays continue in computer failure aftermath

On Friday, air passengers in the UK faced further delays as a result of Thursday’s computer failure at the main air traffic control centre in Britain.

British Airways was forced to cancel a number of its domestic and short-haul flights to Europe from Heathrow Airport on Friday morning as a result of airspace in southeast England being shut down on the previous afternoon.

Minor delays were also reported at other airports in the UK on Friday morning, although most reported that service was gradually returning to normal.

On Thursday afternoon, dozens of flights at London-area airports were cancelled and hundreds were delayed across Britain, with travel plans for more than 10,000 passengers disrupted. At major London airports at least 88 flights were cancelled, and services were affected at Aberdeen, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Manchester, as well.

The computer glitch forced NATS, the air traffic control group, to restrict not only the number of aircraft entering UK airspace, but also the number taking-off from several major airports.

NATS reported that the computer system failure had an impact on their ability to monitor of planes flying at higher altitudes, meaning that planes flying in south-east England’s airspace were required to stay under 24,500 feet.

Air traffic controllers were also required to increase the time between take-offs and the distance between planes in flight, as well as entering all data manually. For a 40-minute period on Thursday afternoon, no planes were allowed to take off and only a few were allowed to land at airports in the south-east.

www.britishairways.com