Gatwick air traffic control disruption: What is happening and why?

On Thursday 15 September dozens more flights and thousands more passengers faced cancellations, long delays and diversions due to air-traffic control staff sickness at London Gatwick airport.

The Sussex airport normally has the busiest runway in the world. But for passengers and airlines using Gatwick, it was the third failure involving the air traffic control service, Nats, in 18 days.

One Tui passenger from Kefalonia to Gatwick, Richard Leadbetter, told The Independent: “Just as we thought we were coming into land at Gatwick the pilot tells us we’ve been diverted and are landing at Bournemouth. We then sat in the plane for three and a half hours. A complete and utter shambles: got home to Tunbridge Wells at midnight instead of 6pm.”

As travellers try to rescue their travel plans, the chief executives of Europe’s biggest budget carriers, easyJet and Ryanair, are demanding action to avoid a repeat. Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary has called on the head of Nats to resign “and hand the job over to someone competent enough to do it”.

So what went wrong – and could it happen again? These are the key questions and answers.

What was the problem – and the effect?

On Thursday afternoon one of the three controllers working in the Gatwick control tower fell sick. The “short-notice staff absence”, as it was described, caused “temporary air traffic control restrictions” that reduced the rate at which incoming aircraft could land.

Gatwick has the busiest runway in the world, and any reduction in the “flow rate” of arrivals has an immediate effect.

At least 15 flights were diverted to airports as far away as Brussels and Cardiff, while dozens more were cancelled or heavily delayed. In total, at least 5,000 people began Friday a long way from where they intended to be.

Has the issue been resolved?

Late on Thursday night the airport said an additional air-traffic controller was “in place”, with restrictions easing and more aircraft able to arrive and depart. The impact continued into Friday, however, due to pilots, cabin crew and planes being out of position or out of hours.

Passengers awaiting an easyJet departure to the Isle of Man were told: “We’re sorry that your flight is delayed. Your plane was delayed on the previous flight because of air traffic control restrictions.”