Half of European flights delayed due to system failure
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Up to half of all European flights on Tuesday could suffer from delays due to a failure in one of the systems used to manage air traffic.
Eurocontrol, which co-ordinates flights across the continent, said almost 15,000 scheduled trips “could have some delay”.
Contingency plans put in place have reduced the network capacity by another 10%, it said.
The problem is expected to be solved late on Tuesday evening.
As from 1520 UTC, we have reopened the access to its flow management system while remaining in Procedural Contingency mode. This is the next step in re-establishing normal Network Manager operations, which is expected later tonight.
— EUROCONTROL (@eurocontrol) April 3, 2018
Eurocontrol said there had been a failure in its Enhanced Tactical Flow Management System.
The system helps to manage air traffic by comparing demand and capacity of different air traffic control sectors.
Air traffic control itself has not been directly affected, and Eurocontrol said there “are no safety implications arising from this incident”.