IN THE AIR:
Ryanair said it canceled more than 200 flights, affecting about 150,000 passengers, while British Airways said it canceled or diverted 100
Flights from British airports resumed yesterday after a major air traffic failure, but questions mounted about the reliability of the UK’s aviation systems and ministers called in the flight control boss to explain the shutdown.The hours-long outage on Tuesday, which resulted in the cancelation of more than 1,000 flights and left hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded, has ramped up pressure on air traffic control provider National Air Traffic Services (NATS) and its CEO, Martin Rolfe.British Secretary for Transport Heidi Alexander summoned Rolfe to explain what happened, amid concerns that the infrastructure and technology are not up to scratch.
People wait in line at Heathrow Airport in London on Tuesday during an air traffic control problem that disrupted travel across the UK.
The shutdown comes three years after the last system meltdown in August 2023, when canceled flights on one of the busiest travel days of the year cost airlines ￡100 million (US$135.54 million).A radar-related technical issue also disrupted flights in July last year, affecting major airports including Britain’s largest, Heathrow Airport.
