EasyJet: Budget airline’s repatriation flights to set off for London Gatwick after air traffic control fault

EasyJet, Britain’s biggest budget airline, is to send repatriation flights to return those stranded abroad as disruption continues. Following an air traffic control (ATC) fault, they will set off for London Gatwick.

The failure, which has so far caused mass disruption including multiple flights to be cancelled or delayed, was caused by flight data received by National Air Traffic Services (Nats).

Despite some theories, a statement from Nats chief executive Martin Rolfe which was released on Tuesday (August 29), clearly stated that there are “no indications” the glitch was caused by a cyber-attack.

Following the disruption, easyJet announced it will run five repatriation flights to London Gatwick, with the first two set to take off on Wednesday.

The airline said: “During this traditionally very busy week for travel, options for returning to the UK are more limited on some routes and so easyJet will be operating five repatriation flights to London Gatwick over the coming days from Palma and Faro on August 30, and Tenerife and Enfidha on August 31 and from Rhodes on September 1.

“We are also operating larger aircraft on key routes including Faro, Ibiza, Dalaman and Tenerife to provide some additional 700 seats this week.”

Explaining the ATC fault, Mr Rolfe said: “Very occasionally technical issues occur that are complex and take longer to resolve.

“In the event of such an issue, our systems are designed to isolate the problem and prioritise continued safe air traffic control. This is what happened yesterday. At no point was UK airspace closed but the number of flights was significantly reduced.

“Initial investigations into the problem show it relates to some of the flight data we received.

“Our systems, both primary and the back-ups, responded by suspending automatic processing to ensure that no incorrect safety-related information could be presented to an air traffic controller or impact the rest of the air traffic system.

“There are no indications that this was a cyber-attack.”