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Air Traffic Control Issue Causes Chaos at Heathrow and Gatwick: Passengers Unlikely to Get Compensation
Developing
In Short: Passengers at London's Heathrow and Gatwick airports faced significant travel disruptions due to a technical issue, with National Air Traffic Services (Nats) warning that compensation for delays or cancellations is unlikely.
As of 8am Thursday, flight tracking service Flightradar24 shows 58 delayed flights at Heathrow, with an average delay of 14 minutes, while Gatwick reported 74 flights delayed by an average of 13 minutes.
More than 2,000 flights to and from the UK were cancelled or delayed on Tuesday and Wednesday due to the issue, with London Heathrow, London Gatwick, Manchester, and Stansted airports among the most disrupted.
National Air Traffic Control Service (Nats) chief Martin Rolfe was summoned to see Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander after reporting a problem with the organisation’s flight data processing system.
Airlines have advised passengers to arrive at the airport on time as the aviation industry recovers, with Heathrow stating that there may still be some changes to schedules and advising passengers to check with their airline for the latest flight information before travelling.
What's still developing
- This means passengers are “unlikely to be entitled to compensation for delays or cancellations that were directly caused by the incident,” it said.
- A judge ruled such issues are “inherent in the normal exercise of the activity of the air carrier”.
- In a post on Wednesday evening, Gatwick airport said that operations have “returned largely to normal, although a small number of residual delays may still occur” following the Nats technical issue.
- An hour and a half later, amid heightened chaos that had spread to other major airports across the country, the public-private partnership body sent out an update, explaining that the issue in “our flight processing system” had been identified.
- Passenger journeys in chaos over ‘technical issue’ hitting hundreds of take-offs Passenger journeys in chaos over ‘technical issue’ hitting hundreds of take-offs Tens of thousands of passengers plunged into travel chaos this week are unlikely to get compensation, the regulator has warned.
- John Sauer, the administration’s top litigator, argued that the warnings from states that the changes are unworkable, represent an overreach of federal authority or would cause chaos in November are all baseless.
- Postal Service to move forward with President Trump’s new rules for mail ballots in the November election would cause “chaos” and could disenfranchise millions of eligible voters.
- Get in touch by emailing sophie.dickinson@independent.co.uk Following Tuesday's technical issue, Heathrow has said that there “may still be some changes to schedules”.
Sources
- Independent link