A 20-minute outage in the UK's air traffic management system (NATS) led to the cancellation of over 150 flights and numerous delays. The exact cause was an error in the radar display system at the air traffic control centre in Swanwick. As a result, radars could not accurately show aircraft positions, and all flights were temporarily suspended for safety reasons.
NATS is considered the "national infrastructure" in the sky. When radar fails, the system reduces the number of planes in the air for safety, so even a short outage has a major impact.
Airlines Ryanair and EasyJet criticized NATS, saying lessons from the 2023 failure have not been learned. Ryanair even demanded the resignation of the NATS chief. However, other experts disagree, arguing such technical failures can sometimes be unavoidable.
UK airspace is among the busiest in the world. The outage occurred at the peak of the travel season, increasing pressure on the entire system. Some are calling for additional runways in southern England.
The government supports airport expansion plans, but they raise environmental concerns.
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