Half of all European flights scheduled for Tuesday are facing delays, following an air traffic control systems outage.
Eurocontrol, the organisation which manages air traffic operations throughout Europe, said its Enhanced Tactical Flow Management System had failed. The system helps regulate the flow of flights across Europe.
In a statement on Tuesday, the organisation said: “Today 29,500 flights were expected in the European network. Approximately half of those could have some delay as a result of the system outage.”
There has been a failure of the Enhanced Tactical Flow Management System. Contingency procedures are being put in place which will have the effect of reducing the capacity of the European network by approximately 10%. Further information will be provided as soon as possible.
— EUROCONTROL (@eurocontrol) April 3, 2018
It is not known how many Irish flights are affected.
Eurocontrol said contingency measures would reduce the capacity of the European network by approximately 10 per cent.
Work is under way to resolve the problem, but the organisation has asked aircraft operators to refile all flight plans that were submitted before 10.26am UTC.
Dublin Airport
Dublin Airport Authority said the systems failure could result in some delays to the flight schedule at the airport.
In a tweet, it advised all passengers to check with their airlines for updates on their flights. The outage follows earlier delays at the airport due to the presence of dense fog.
Ryanair said it had to cancel a small number of flights due to the air traffic control issue and that some others had been delayed. Ryanair passengers can check if their flight has been affected here.
Aer Lingus said the technical failure is causing some delays to its flights. It said it will monitor the situation and update passengers of any disruption to its schedule and that passengers can check if their flight is affected here.