Staff crisis puts air travel safety at risk, union warns minister

Air traffic controllers have warned the Government that the safety of air travel is in jeopardy unless the service's financial and staffing crises are solved.

The controllers' union, Prospect, is seeking immediate government intervention to resolve the problems at the part-privatised service in a letter to Alistair Darling, the Secretary of State for Transport. The Department of Transport said Mr Darling acknowledged the finances of National Air Traffic Services (Nats) needed strengthening.

Meanwhile, EasyJet cancelled 19 flights to and from Luton and Liverpool airports yesterday because of air traffic control and technical problems. Passengers were put on alternative flights when planes to destinations including Amsterdam, Geneva and Barcel-ona were cancelled.

A spokeswoman for EasyJet said the cancellations were partly due to traffic volume on Saturday, which had a knock-on effect yesterday. A Nats spokeswoman said problems were caused by a combination of thunderstorms and the large volume of traffic.

In the Prospect letter, obtained by The Independent on Sunday, the union's national secretary, David Luxton, said delays were likely to increase over the coming year because of staff shortages. The Independent reported last week that air traffic controllers were being offered cash by bosses to forgo days off and holidays. "There is a risk that financial pressures and operational overload will lead to air traffic safety being compromised and service levels degraded," Mr Luxton said.

Leaked papers from the London area control centre at Swanwick, Hampshire, revealed that Nats has already filed double the number of "overload" reports it made for the whole of 2001. These are made out when controllers believe they have too many planes to cope with.

Mr Luxton's letter came a week after the influential Commons Transport Committee issued a scathing report on the part-privatisation of Nats, which it said threatened to do "terminal damage to the United Kingdom's aviation industry and national interest".

It also follows a series of reports of near-misses between aircraft, including an incident near Biggin Hill, Kent, in which two Boeing 737 jets were said to have had to take evasive action after coming within one and a half miles of each other.

A Department for Transport spokesman said: "We recognise that Nats' finances do need strengthening."