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Airport disruption: Flights recover after Nats system failure
Airports
around the UK are returning to normal, although almost 40 flights have been
cancelled at Heathrow, the day after a computer failure at the national air
traffic control centre.
National
Air Traffic Services (Nats) said a technical fault in the flight data system at
its Swanwick centre, in Hampshire, had caused the problem.This
resulted in widespread disruption at airports around the UK on Friday.Transport
Secretary Patrick McLoughlin said the situation was "unacceptable". The
Swanwick centre was restored to "full operational capacity" by Friday
afternoon, Nats said. Heathrow
Airport has warned of knock-on effects on Saturday and urged passengers to
check their flight status. It said 38
flights due to arrive or take off before 09:30 GMT had been cancelled. A Heathrow
spokesman said the flights could not be rescheduled because the airport ran at
98% capacity. He said passengers would be rebooked on other services. British Airways
said there may be "some disruption" to its flights on Saturday. It said
Gatwick and London City flights were expected to operate as normal but advised
all passengers to check the status of their flight before leaving for the
airport. Gatwick
Airport said it would be operating a full service on Saturday although there
would be "some backlog". Many other
airports are also due to run their scheduled Saturday flights on time,
according to their websites. Cause
undefinedThe glitch
caused many delays at Heathrow and Gatwick on Friday, where departing flights
were grounded for a time. Dozens of
arrivals and departures at airports across southern England, and as far north
as Aberdeen and Edinburgh, were also delayed and cancelled. Many
passengers have had to stay in hotels overnight because of rescheduled flights. The
problems came a year after a telephone failure at the Hampshire control room
caused huge disruption - one of a number of technical hitches to hit the
part-privatised Nats since the centre opened in 2002.
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