London Gatwick cancels flights due to ATC staff sickness

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London Gatwick is to cancel 164 flights during the next few days due to a bout of sickness among air traffic controllers at the airport.

The airport said it would temporarily cap flights at 800 per day from Tuesday (26 September) through to Sunday (1 October) because of the shortage of workers at its air traffic control tower.

The cap will mean the cancellation of 82 departures and 82 arrivals across Gatwick’s carriers up to Sunday, with easyJet likely to be the most impacted airline as the airport’s largest operator.

Currently around 30 per cent of Gatwick’s tower controllers, who work for the UK’s air traffic control body NATS, are off sick due to a “variety” of medical reasons including an outbreak of Covid-19.

Stewart Wingate, Gatwick’s CEO, said: This has been a difficult decision but the action we have taken today means our airlines can fly reliable flight programmes, which gives passengers more certainty that they will not face last minute cancellations. 

“We are working closely with NATS to build resilience in the control tower, and this decision means we can prevent as much disruption as possible.  

“London Gatwick would like to apologise to any passengers who have been impacted by these restrictions.” 

The worst affected days will be Friday (29 September), when a total of 65 flights will be cancelled, followed by Thursday (28 September) with 40 cancellations and Sunday (1 October) with 30 cancellations. 

But there will be no need for any cancellations at Gatwick on Tuesday (26 September) and Saturday (30 September) as there are only scheduled to be 800 flights on both of these days.

Last month, a technical problem with the UK’s air traffic control system caused major disruption to flights to and from the country’s airports.

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