Thousands stranded by flight cancellations after systems failure at Europe's air-traffic coordinator

Ryanair cancels more than 20 flights to and from Stansted

Thousands of passengers have had their travel plans wrecked by a systems failure at Eurocontrol, the air-traffic coordinator based in Brussels.

At 11.26am, the Enhanced Tactical Flow Management System [ETFMS] failed. The system, colloquially known as the “slot computer”, is designed to match demand from airlines with capacity in the crowded skies above Europe.

When airlines file flight plans, ETFMS calculates a pathway according to available airspace and allocates slots accordingly. The relevant national air-traffic providers are notified, reducing the complexity of communication.

​Eurocontrol describes the system as “a key enabler of the air traffic flow and capacity management services”. But when it failed, flight plans for thousands of departures were lost and air-traffic controllers had to fall back on contingency plans that soon triggered delays.

Ryanair cancelled more than 20 flights to and from Stansted, including services to Nice, Cologne, Oslo and Toulouse.

The airline told passengers: “Due to a Eurocontrol ATC [air-traffic control] failure affecting all airlines across Europe, some flights are currently experiencing delays and we regret we have been forced to cancel a small number of flights.

“Further delays are likely. We apologise for any inconvenience caused by this ATC failure, which is entirely beyond our control, and we are working hard to minimise the disruption to our operations.”

At Gatwick, some flights were delayed by three hours or more, including easyJet services to Lyon, Milan, Malta and Valencia.

Passengers on easyJet were told: “We have just been informed of a system failure with the centralised Air Traffic Control flight planning system in Brussels.

“This system failure is affecting all airlines flying in and out of Europe and could cause air traffic control delays to many flights.”

Joe Sultana, the organisation’s Director Network Manager, said: “Eurocontrol very much regrets the disruption that has been caused to passengers and airlines.

“The contingency procedures put in place ensured that safety was not compromised at any time. In over 20 years of operation, the ETFMS has only had one other outage which occurred in 2001.”

It is not clear why a back-up system based at Eurocontrol’s Experimental Centre in Brétigny, south of Paris, did not seamlessly take over when the Brussels computer failed.

The impact of the failure was lessened by a strike by Air France staff, which meant hundreds of flights had already been cancelled.

Passengers whose flights are cancelled or severely delayed are entitled to meals and, if necessary, accommodation until they can be flown to their final destination.

Airline passengers in the London area face delays on Wednesday as new technology is introduced by the UK's air-traffic service provider, NATS.