Hundreds of flights cancelled and more delayed by up to four hours because of fault with the telephones at air traffic control
- Nats usually would've handled 2,000 flights by now, but just 1,700 so far
- Heathrow: 204 flights cancelled due to computing glitch in Hampshire
- Unlikely to be fixed until 7pm at earliest and stems from control centre
- Stansted Airport: All departures delayed by 30 minutes to two hours
- London Gatwick: 20% of departures delayed by 'a couple of hours'
- Ryanair apologises for 'significant delays and possible cancellations'
- Problems at London City, Luton, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Glasgow
- Issues also at Bristol, Cardiff, Bournemouth, Manchester and Dublin
By MARK DUELL
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Thousands of people were today stranded at airports across Britain as hundreds of flights were delayed and cancelled because of a technical problem at an air traffic control centre.
The National Air Traffic Services issue - which has left passengers affected at major airports including London Heathrow, Stansted and Gatwick - was unlikely to be fixed until 7pm.
A computing glitch in the early hours of the morning at the Nats control centre in Swanwick, Hampshire, meant the night-time operation failed to properly switch over to the daytime system.
Travel hell: Passengers queue at the flight check-in desk to re-book tickets at London Heathrow Airport Terminal Five after a 'technical problem' at the National Air Traffic Services control centre caused long delays
Distressed: One man looked glum and another was holding his head in his hands at Stansted Airport in Essex
Ginger beards: Lizzy Roberts posted this photograph on Twitter, saying she and her friends were stranded at Stansted Airport with a three-hour delay, hoping to make it to Dublin to celebrate a 30th birthday
By midday on a Saturday, Nats would usually have handled around 2,000 flights but today that figure stood at 1,700. At London Heathrow, the UK's busiest airport, there were 204 cancellations.
That figure was split roughly equally between departures and arrivals. A Heathrow spokesman said: ‘Due to a technical issue with air traffic control, flights from many UK airports, including Heathrow, are subject to delay and cancellation.
‘If you are flying today you should check the status of your flight with your airline. We are sorry that passengers have experienced disruption to their journeys.’
The queue to rebook cancelled flights with British Airways at Heathrow Terminal Five was stretching almost the entire length of the terminal building today, reported ITV News.
A Nats spokesman said: ‘Due to a technical problem at Swanwick we are currently experiencing some difficulty switching from night-time to daytime operation.
‘At night, when it's quiet, we can combine sectors of airspace. When it gets busy in the daytime, we split the sectors out again. The voice communications system is configured to enable this to happen.
Enlarge 
Up above: This map from FlightRadar24 shows the real-time position of all planes over the London region just after 8.30am today. Aircraft can be seen grouped over Stansted (top centre) and Gatwick (bottom centre)
Unhappy: Plane passengers took to Twitter to express their dismay at the delays across Britain this morning
‘We experienced a technical problem in the early hours of this morning, which means that it hasn't been possible to reconfigure the voice communications system to split out the sectors for the busier daytime traffic in some areas of the UK enroute airspace.
HOW HAS YOUR LOCAL AIRPORT BEEN AFFECTED BY THE PROBLEM?
- London Stansted: All departing flights subject to delays of between 30 minutes and two hours
- London Gatwick: 20% of departures delayed and passengers could be waiting 'couple of hours'
- London Heathrow: 60 flights cancelled by 9.45am
- London City: About half of flights disrupted
- London Luton: Inbound flights unaffected but outbound flights hit
- Dublin: Experiencing delays
- Cardiff: All flights affected with some unknown delays
- Edinburgh: 12 flights delayed but no cancellations
- Glasgow: 'Some delays' reported
- Newcastle: Delays, but no further details
- Bournemouth: Delays on arrivals and departures
- Manchester: 'Minor delays but traffic is coming in and out'
- Bristol: 'Very minimal disruption'
- Gloucestershire: No delays
‘Engineers are working to rectify the problem as soon as possible, but this is resulting in some delays. Safety has not been compromised at any time, and we sincerely apologise for any inconvenience being caused to passengers.’
A London Stansted spokesman said all of the airport's departing flights were subject to delays of between 30 minutes and two hours, while London Gatwick said 20 per cent of its departures had been delayed, with passengers warned they could wait for ‘a couple of hours’.
The Stansted spokesman said: ‘There are restrictions on the airspace and the flow of aircraft. Our first departures go at 6am, so that's when the problems started.’
A spokesman for Gatwick Airport said: ‘There are some issues with the air traffic control system.
‘The result of it is that, at the moment, 20 per cent of our flights are being delayed, by anything up to a couple of hours, but we're getting people moving and getting them away.’
A spokeswoman for Dublin Airport said it was experiencing delays, with all flights at Cardiff Airport affected this morning.
London City Airport said about 50 per cent of its flights had been disrupted, while Luton said inbound flights were unaffected but outbound flights had been hit. Scotland's two biggest airports reported delays.
A spokesman for Edinburgh Airport said 12 flights were currently delayed but there are no cancellations. He said the delays were ranging from one hour and 45 minutes to three hours and 50 minutes. Passengers were advised to check with their airline.
Waiting game: Passengers queue at the flight check-in desk at London Heathrow Airport Terminal Five
Standing in line: A spokesman for British Airways said the airline is trying to 'minimise disruption to our flights'
Problems: Heathrow had cancelled 60 flights by 9.45am, with that figure split roughly equally between departures and arrivals
Glasgow Airport tweeted: ‘A technical issue with air traffic control is resulting in some flight delays. Please check with your airline for specific flight info.’
PASSENGER LAMENTS 'UNHOLY MESS' AND PREPARES FOR DELAY
Passenger Daisy McAndrew said she had been caught in the ‘unholy mess’ at Gatwick as she tried to fly to Barcelona for work.
‘As ever, staff have been fantastic but they know nothing other than the fact it is going to be a very, very long delay - very frustrating,’ Ms McAndrew told Sky News. ‘And also, it's embarrassing, isn't it?
‘When you look around a lot of people on my plane are not British, they are flying British Airways, they are probably trying to get back to Spain and they will inevitably be thinking this is something that could have possibly been prevented.
‘It doesn't show our air traffic control system or our travel system in a good light.
‘I have never heard of an example where every single plane is grounded - it's quite eerie when I look out of the window to see the tarmac in Gatwick, normally so busy, and also the sky above Gatwick which is normally busy - completely static, there's nothing moving.’
Bournemouth Airport in Dorset and Newcastle Airport were also affected. But a spokesman for Gloucestershire Airport said it had not been affected.
Plane passengers took to Twitter to express their dismay at the delays - with Rosie Ellis stuck at London Heathrow Terminal Three, waiting for a Virgin Atlantic flight to New York.
The events manager said: 'Boarded the plane, all settled and then informed that there is a two-hour delay before take off #great #movietime #heathrow #nyc.'
And Emma Henderson, who was also hoping to get to New York, said: 'Two-hour delay out of Newcastle #nothappy #tired #grumpy #wanttobeinnewyork.'
Meanwhile, Lizzy Roberts posted a photograph on Twitter of a group of her friends wearing ginger beards, saying they were stuck at Stansted Airport with a three-hour delay, hoping to make it to Dublin to celebrate a 30th birthday.
Take That singer Howard Donald was also caught up in the chaos. He said on Twitter: 'Control tower failure at Heathrow as left me stranded for two to three hours at Dusseldorf. Anyone know any games besides eye spy?'
And Twitter user Tim Smalley wrote: 'Crazy delays at Heathrow. Supposed to leave 1hr ago and we've just been told we might leave the gate by 3pm. And we can't leave the plane.'
Paralympic sailor Helena Lucas said: 'Lots of angry people at Heathrow. Customer services is crowded with unhappy people. My flight looks on time fingers crossed.'
Independent aviation analyst Chris Yates said: ‘It's going to be a day of frustrations and the knock-on effects are going to last for the whole day because of the backlog of planes. It will be a tough day for everybody.’
Delays galore: A flight information board at Birmingham Airport, as a 'technical problem' at the National Air Traffic Services control centre in Swanwick, Hampshire, caused delays at airports across Britain
Delays: Passengers at Gatwick Airport (file picture) were warned they could be waiting for 'a couple of hours'
Grounded: London Stansted Airport (file picture) said all of its departing flights were subject to delays of between 30 minutes and two hours
Mr Yates said Swanwick controls all aircraft over the South of England, meaning thousands of passengers would be affected.
‘There are contingency plans in place whenever this happens,’ he said. ‘Many of the long-haul flights, coming from China, India, the US and so on, passengers sitting on those planes may find themselves diverted to continental airports.
£623M HI-TECH CENTRE'S GLITCHES
Air traffic controllers at the £623 million state-of-the-art centre at Swanwick have been presented with a completely new problem today.
At the centre of the difficulties at the Hampshire centre is a problem with the telephone system which has prevented controllers making what is normally a smooth transition from night-time operations to daytime ones.
Bosses of air traffic control company Nats know what the problem is but now face the task of finding out what caused it.
Opened in January 2002, the Swanwick centre reduces its operations at night when only a handful of the average 5,000 flights the centre handles every 24 hours are in the air.
Nats divides the UK airspace into a number of sectors. Only a few sectors are needed at night and then, as traffic builds up in the early morning, more sectors become operational.
As these sectors grow, so does the number of controllers handling them. What has happened today is that the telephone problem has led to Nats having difficulty reconfiguring the sectors.
Swanwick has had computer glitches before, but this is a problem unconnected with any the centre has previously experienced. As Nats works to overcome the difficutly, bosses are also looking to see if recent changes they have made could have caused today's problem.
Privatised in 2001, Nats had a series of software problems at Swanwick in the run-up to the switch to the Hampshire centre from the company's old headquarters at West Drayton in west London.
This meant delays to the starting date which finally became January 2002. It followed one of the largest training programmes in air traffic control history, with each controller spending 170 hours training on the new systems.
There were a number of early glitches in the opening months, but generally the centre, which employs around 1,300 controllers, has worked well.
There were problems in September 2008 when a computer fault led to flight delays. And earlier this year - in July - flights in southern England were delayed due to another problem at Swanwick.
Hampshire had been identified as a possible new centre as early as 1990 and the building at Swanwick was handed over to Nats in November 1994.
The Government has a 49 per cent stake in Nats, while the Airline Group, a body that includes a number of UK carriers, has a 41.9 per cent share. Heathrow (formerly BAA) has a 4 per cent stake, with Nats' employees holding 5 per cent.
In the last few weeks, the Universities Superannuation Scheme Limited, one of the largest pension schemes in the UK, announced that it was acquiring a 49.9 per cent non-controlling stake in the Airline Group.
Nats has been operating since 1962 and last year handled 2.1million flights, carrying some 220 million passengers in the UK.
In the 2012/13 financial year, delays to flights which were attributable to Nats average just 1.4 seconds.
‘But it's going to be a long wait for them. When the system kicks back in and starts working, there will be a backlog of flights. For those waiting to fly out, it's going to be a case of sitting around the airport terminal until things get back to normal.’
A spokesman for Bristol Airport described the situation as getting better. ‘It is very minimal disruption for us here at Bristol, with some flights being impacted approximately 20 minutes,’ she said. ‘It is improving all the time.’
Passengers were advised to check with their airline for the latest situation. Virgin Atlantic said on Twitter: ‘Due to issues with UK air traffic control this morning, we are experiencing some delays.’
On its website, Ryanair apologised for any inconvenience, writing: ‘Ryanair has been advised of an equipment failure within UK air traffic control which will cause significant flight delays and possible cancellations.’
In a statement, easyJet said: "EasyJet can confirm it is currently experiencing severe delays to flights to, from and within the UK due to a technical problem with UK air traffic control computer systems.
"While the majority of this morning's flights have now departed, severe delays to flights can be expected at all UK airports throughout the day with cancellations possible later.
'We're doing everything we can to ensure that our passengers are well taken care of while our flights await clearance to depart, by keeping them up to date with the latest information and providing them with free refreshments on board.
'Passengers are strongly advised to check www.easyJet.com or Flight Tracker tool at www.easyjet.com/en/flight-tracker for up to date information on the status of their flights.
'While these events are outside its control easyJet would like to apologise to its passengers for any inconvenience caused.'
Flight Global's safety expert David Learmount said that Nats’ systems operate with limited capacity overnight while maintenance is carried out - and it would have had problems after switching them back to full capacity this morning.
He told Sky News: ‘What I suspect we're seeing at Nats is that they're finding that they’re trying to bring some of the equipment online and it's not working satisfactorily.
'When you're in the business that Nats is in, you can't try and muddle by with second-best.
‘What you have to do is get in touch with the airports and just say “Look, we've got some equipment, we can't handle the normal level of traffic, so we're going to have to reduce the amount of traffic that we handle, so what is in the air is safe”.’
The problem was unlikely to be fixed until 2pm at the earliest.
The Association of British Travel Agents (Abta) said: ‘Nats air traffic control has advised that, due to air traffic control telephone equipment failure at Swanwick, they are currently experiencing some difficulty switching from night-time to daytime operations.
‘Technicians are working to try to resolve the issue but have advised that this is unlikely to be before 2pm today. Delays and flight cancellations at some UK airports are being experienced as a result.
‘Customers due to travel today should liaise with their airline to establish if there are any changes to their flight arrangements.
Issue: A computing glitch in the early hours of the morning at the Nats control centre (pictured) in Swanwick, Hampshire, meant the night-time operation failed to properly switch over to the daytime system
Opened in 2002: The £623 million state-of-the-art air traffic control centre at Swanwick in Hampshire has had its share of computer glitches since air traffic control company Nats moved in
‘Furthermore, customers should be prepared for potential delays and are advised to carry essential items such as medication in their hand luggage.’
In an statement, British Airways said ‘there will inevitably be a significant number of short-haul cancellations at some UK and European airports today’.
'It's going to be a day of frustrations and the knock-on effects are going to last for the whole day because of the backlog of planes. It will be a tough day for everybody'
Chris Yates, aviation analyst
A spokesman said: ‘All airlines at London airports are suffering delays because of an air traffic control system issue.
‘We are doing all we can to minimise disruption to our flights, but there will inevitably be a significant number of short-haul cancellations at some UK and European airports today.
‘Customers are advised to check ba.com for latest flight information before travelling to the airport. Customers on cancelled flights will be able to claim a full refund or be rebooked on to alternative flights.
‘Given that Heathrow is the world's busiest two-runway airport and Gatwick is the world's busiest single-runway airport, there will be problems for all airlines as a result of the ATC failures.’
Looking down: There have been cancellations at London Heathrow Airport for flights scheduled to leave this morning. A file pictured of the view for two air traffic controllers from the control tower at Heathrow is seen
Problems: A spokesman for Heathrow Airport (file picture) said it was 'currently experiencing some delays'
Nats said that, while it could not specify when the issue would be fixed, it was ‘working as hard as possible to solve the problem’.
'There will inevitably be a significant number of short-haul cancellations at some UK and European airports today'
British Airways spokesman
The spokesman said the problem was linked to voice communications, which includes, but is not confined to, the telephone system.
A Manchester Airport spokesman said: ‘Due to an air traffic control issue the whole country is facing air travel delays at the moment. At Manchester Airport we are currently facing minor delays but traffic is coming in and out.
‘The safety of our passengers is always paramount so we will continue to liaise with air traffic control until the issue is resolved. Passengers should check with their airline and on our website for individual flight information.’
The Airport Operators' Association also reiterated that passengers should contact their airline directly.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2519774/Plane-delays-Flights-delayed-hours-airports-Britain-technical-problems.html#ixzz2mo1rj7Kn
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