Air passengers face further delays after UK air
traffic control failure
Transport minister rules out cyber-attack after
hundreds of flights to and from the UK cancelled
Jamie Grierson
@JamieGrierson
Tue 29 Aug 2023 08.08 BST
Flight
passengers will be affected by UK air traffic control failures for days, the
transport secretary has warned as he urged airlines to step up and fulfil their
responsibilities to passengers.
Speaking on
BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Mark Harper said National Air Traffic Services
(Nats), which provides the air traffic control systems in the UK, had
apologised for the disruption, adding: “I’d like to add my apology to that.”
Holidaymakers
were hit by the delays on bank holiday Monday after a UK air traffic control
technical failure meant flight plans had to be input manually by controllers.
By Monday afternoon, 232 flights departing from UK airports had been cancelled
as well as 271 arriving flights, according to the aviation analytics company
Cirium.
On Tuesday,
Harper ruled out a cyber-attack. He said: “First of all, I want reiterate what
Nats said yesterday, they apologised for the disruption, I’d like to add my
apology to that, I’ve been in a similar position when flights are cancelled.
It’s incredibly disruptive so I do understand that.”
“Airlines
have a responsibility either to get people back on a flight to get them home or
to pay for them to be accommodated and to sort out accommodation of them, and
for food or drink as well. If they don’t do it people can pay for reasonable
costs themselves and claim back from their airlines,” he added.
“There was
a technical issue with the flight planning system that will be looked at in
detail. When there is a significant issue like this … the CAA [Civil Aviation
Authority] has to do a report on an incident of this magnitude and report back
to me.
“I don’t
wish at this point to rush to judgment … they had to go to a manual system they
have as a failsafe. Their primary responsibility is to make sure people fly
safely so they had to reduce the capacity of the system.”
Asked if
this could have been the outcome of a cyber-attack, Harper said: “Those people
who look at these things have looked at it and are clear it was not a
cyber-attack. They will continue looking at the systems. But you’re right, the
timing was not at all helpful at all for people. The system is very busy anyway
but particularly on this bank holiday at the end of the holiday period.
“I accept
it has disrupted thousands of people. Lots of flights were cancelled yesterday
because of the imperative to keep the system working safely and it is going to
take some days to get completely everybody back to where they should be.”
Harper said
he did not accept that the wider UK transport infrastructure could not be
relied on. “On 99.9% of occasions, the air traffic system works perfectly well
millions of people fly into the UK without incident, clearly it was a big
problem … I’m not minimising it … these things do not happen frequently.”
Major UK
airlines including Tui and BA warned of “significant delays” for passengers
amid changes to schedules. Passengers are being urged by airlines to check
before they leave for the airport as their flight times may have changed.
Heathrow
airport tweeted on Monday night: “We apologise for any inconvenience as a
result of the Nats technical issues today. The issue has been resolved however
schedules remain significantly disrupted. If you are travelling on 29th August,
please ensure you contact your airline before travelling to the airport.”
Gatwick
said it planned to operate a normal schedule on Tuesday, but advised passengers
to check the status of their flight before travelling to the airport.
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