UK airport service returns back to normal
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UK airports have returned to a normal service after an air traffic software glitch caused widespread disruptions on Saturday.
Thousands of passengers were affected by cancellations and delays at several airports on Saturday morning (7 December 2013), after National Air Traffic Services’ (NATS) system went through a fault when switching from the night to day setup.
Although the problem was fixed at 19.30 on Saturday evening delays continued into Sunday morning.
According to the BBC, NATS said it was unable to handle the normal volume of flights on Saturday and dealt with 20% fewer than usual.
Heathrow is thought to have cancelled more than 228 flights, with disruption also seen at Gatwick, Stansted, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds Bradford, Doncaster Robin Hood, Belfast International, Dublin and Newcastle.
In a statement on its website, NATS said: “The technical and operational contingency measures we have had in place all day have enabled us to deliver more than 80% of our normal operation. The reduction in capacity has had a disproportionate effect on southern England because it is extremely complex and busy airspace and we sincerely regret inconvenience to our airline customers and their passengers.”
“To be clear, this is a very complex and sophisticated system with more than a million lines of software. This is not simply internal telephones, it is the system that controllers use to speak to other ATC agencies both in the UK and Europe and is the biggest system of its kind in Europe,” it added.
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