"The staff were useless": Glasgow Airport passenger hits out after second NATS failure in a month
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Flights were delayed and cancelled across Scotland and the north of England after a fault at the NATS Prestwick centre — the second air traffic control failure this month.
The resilience of the Nats’ system has been called into question as Glasgow Airport recovers from a further technical failure that has caused delays and cancellations for passengers.
EasyJet said the latest flight disruption “calls into question the resilience of Nats’ systems” after two air traffic control problems within one month.
The airline said in a statement: “A Nats air traffic control system failure in its Prestwick centre is causing delays to flights with some unable to operate.
“This, once again, calls into question the resilience of Nats’ systems and demonstrates the need for firm actions to prevent these repeated failures.
“We will do all we can to minimise the impact of this for our customers and advise anyone due to fly today to check our flight tracker for the latest information.”
Earlier in September, around 2000 flights were affected by an outage.
The issue, which was first reported on Monday morning, saw around 15 delays or cancellations for passengers at Glasgow Airport, with further issues across Scotland and the north of England. NATS reported that the issue had been fixed at around 10.45am and that they were working to minimise any further disruption, however some delays are still in place.
A NATS spokesperson said: “The issue in our Prestwick centre is now fixed. We are working with airports and airlines to safely lift air traffic regulations as quickly as we can to minimise any further disruption. Passengers should still check the status of their flight with their airline. We apologise for the disruption.”
The further technical issues at airports across Scotland have also been addressed by the Scottish Passenger Agents' Association. The SPAA echoed easyJet’s questions regarding the resilience of the UK’s air traffic control infrastructure.
A spokesperson said: “While NATS has stated that today’s issue at its Prestwick centre is unrelated to the major system failure earlier this month, the fact that passengers and the travel industry are once again dealing with disruption caused by an air traffic control technical problem, just a matter of days later, will inevitably raise serious questions about the resilience of the UK’s air traffic control infrastructure.
“For passengers, the cause may be technical, but the consequences are very real: delayed journeys, missed connections and considerable uncertainty. For travel agents, it means another day of supporting customers, checking alternative arrangements and dealing with the knock-on effects of disruption which is entirely outside their control.”
One passenger, Stephen Finlayson, who was travelling to Albania via Luton, slammed the response to issues at Glasgow Airport.
He said: “The staff were useless. Gave a leaflet with a QR code to scan to arrange another flight. I also missed my connecting flight to Albania. Folk were not happy with the situation as there were lots of flights cancelled.”
Commenting earlier, an AGS, who operate Glasgow Airport, spokesperson said: "A technical issue affecting NATS air traffic control services at the Prestwick Centre is causing disruption to some flight departures and arrivals. As a result, some services operating to and from our airports are experiencing delays, primarily at Glasgow Airport, and further disruption is expected due to the knock-on impact across the network.
"We apologise for any inconvenience caused to passengers. This is the second time in as many weeks that a NATS technical issue has had a significant impact on services operating through our airports, and we fully appreciate the frustration this will cause those whose travel plans have been disrupted. We advise passengers to check with their airline for the latest flight information before travelling."