BRITISH travellers are facing chaos today as French air traffic control problems sparked delays to flights at the end of school holidays.
As families fly home from summer breaks, an “outage” majorly affected planes moving through French and Spanish airspace.
Paris Airport posted there had been “national computer failure related to the centralisation of flight plans” this morning, with delays expected throughout the day.
British Airways tweeted: “We’re impacted by an air traffic control outage which is causing delays to flights using French and Spanish airspace.
“We’re working hard to minimise the impact on our customers’ travel plans.”
And Gatwick Airport advised passengers to check with their airlines to see if their flight was delayed or cancelled.
Easyjet warned a number of flights would have to be scrapped, adding there are “significant delays”.
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National Air Traffic Services (NATS) said the number of flights affected by the outage isn’t known, but work is being done to minimise disruption.
Travel expert Simon Calder told the BBC: “France is absolutely at the heart of European air traffic control – some 60 per cent of all Easyjet flights to anywhere go over French territory.
“This appears to be some kind of malfunction which has greatly reduced the flow rate [of flights] so there’s reports of pilots in Lisbon, for example, trying to get to the UK telling passengers we could be five hours late.”
He added passengers would not be able to get compensation as the delays are not the fault of the airline, but added they should receive a certain level of duty of care.
Last week we told how passengers are set to face travel chaos as eco-activists are threatening to fly drones over Heathrow Airport, grounding all flights.
Plans for the major disruption were released as the group pledged to disrupt airport operations on September 13 – when thousands of holidaymakers are expected to return before school starts.
The group called Heathrow Pause said it plans to “exploit a loophole” by flying toy drones within restricted airspace.
And last month customs computer networks across the US unexpectedly shutdown for several hours causing major delays at airports.
John F. Kennedy Airport in New York and Los Angeles International (LAX) were among the airports hit by delays.
Long lines formed JFK and other US airports on Friday afternoon amid the “nationwide” computer meltdown.
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