
Harper to satisfy aviation chiefs after air site visitors management disruption

viation chiefs shall be urged by Transport Secretary Mark Harper to do every little thing potential to return passengers nonetheless left stranded by the air site visitors management (ATC) failure.
Flights to and from UK airports had been restricted for a number of hours on Monday afternoon as National Air Traffic Services (Nats) was unable to course of flight plans routinely.
Mr Harper is assembly Nats, the Civil Aviation Authority, Border Force, airways, airports and commerce teams on Friday “to discuss the latest situation ahead of the start of the new school year” in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
“I’m closely monitoring the latest developments following Monday’s air traffic control failure,” the Transport Secretary stated.
“Although operations have nearly returned to normal, many people are still waiting for their rebooked flights
“Airlines have worked incredibly hard to fly passengers back, and I remain in contact with industry to ensure we’re doing everything possible to get passengers home as quickly as possible.”
Nats stated an “unusual piece of data” it acquired pressured it to modify to guide checks.
More than 1 / 4 of flights had been cancelled on Monday, and the knock-on impact continued for 2 extra days.
This week’s disruption got here at one of many worst occasions of the yr as there may be little spare capability resulting from it being the top of the summer time break for a lot of colleges.
Thousands of holidaymakers are nonetheless stranded abroad as many flights from in style locations are full.
Nats is conducting an inquiry into what occurred and can ship a preliminary report back to Mr Harper on Monday.