Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

TRAVEL NEWS

UK airports glitch caused 300 cancelled flights from Spain

The travel chaos at UK airports this week, which was caused by a serious air traffic control glitch, had a ripple effect on flights in Spain, with thousands of British holidaymakers affected. Could it happen again?

Published: 30 August 2023 17:19 CEST
UK airports glitch caused 300 cancelled flights from Spain
A passenger lies down at Standsted airport in London. Photo: Daniel LEAL/AFP.

Monday and Tuesday were chaotic days at some UK airports due to a computer failure in the flight plan system that caused the cancellation of hundreds of flights.

In total 1,500 flights were cancelled or severely delayed, leaving thousands of passengers stuck in British airports and thousands more stranded abroad, waiting for their flight home after the summer holidays.

The travel disruption was not only limited to the UK. In particular, the chaos in Britain had a ripple effect on the Spanish skies.

On the Monday alone, nearly 300 flights were affected in Spain, according to Spain’s state airport operator Aena, with no data published yet for Tuesday 29th.

Spain is one of the most popular summer destinations among British holidaymakers, and the failure came just as the season was drawing to a close and as many thousands of them were preparing to return home.

Thousands were grounded, stuck at Spanish airports and unable to fly back to the United Kingdom.

On Monday, there were over 280 flights cancelled at airports in Spain. At Palma de Mallorca airport, 40 flights were affected between departures and arrivals.

The Balearic Islands were also hit by hurricane-force winds and rain that caused many more cancellations and turned Palma airport into a campsite of disgruntled travellers.

At Ibiza airport, 35 flights were cancelled; Alicante 31; Tenerife South 28; at Barcelona El Prat 27; at Malaga-Costa del Sol, 24; Madrid Barajas, 14.

In Gran Canaria, 15 flights were delayed; in Lanzarote, 13 flights; and six more in Fuerteventura.

Passengers waited for hours at Stansted Airport. Photo: Daniel LEAL/AFP.

The technical failure lasted from midday on Monday August 28th until approximately 3pm that same afternoon. This was then compounded by another failure at the Rome control centre, which caused international delays to hundreds of further flights and forced the cancellation of hundreds more.

Budget airline giants such as Ryanair had to cancel 250 flights across Europe on Monday and another 70 on Tuesday. In total, some 40,000 Ryanair passengers were affected by delays and cancellations, according to a video posted to social media by CEO Michael O’Leary.

The glitch has now been fixed and will not happen again, the head of NATS, the UK’s air traffic control provider, promised on Wednesday.

Martin Rolfe, CEO of NATS, blamed the problem on a single flight plan which was “not sufficiently standard”. 

“We’ve worked incredibly hard since we restored the service back on Monday to make sure that this type of event can’t happen again,” he told the BBC.

Airlines including Ryanair criticised NATS for having a back-up system in case of technical problems.

With many of their planes and crews still stuck in the wrong places, airlines were on Wednesday doing their best to get schedules back on track and make some progress with the backlog of cancelled and delayed flights in and out of Britain.

EasyJet has added five extra flights from holiday hotspots destinations in Spain and Portugal to fly stranded passengers home.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.
For members

TRAVEL NEWS

Your questions answered on the UK’s new £10 entry fee for European travellers

From next year, European travellers visiting the UK will be required to pay a £10 Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) in order to enter. The Local answers your questions on what that means for people living in the EU or EEA, including EU spouses and dual nationals.

Published: 13 September 2024 12:10 CEST
Your questions answered on the UK's new £10 entry fee for European travellers

The UK has introduced an electronic travel authorisation scheme known as ETA (Electronic Travel Authorisation) for people paying short visits such as tourists of those visiting family members.

The ETA – which costs £10, lasts for two years and must be applied for online in advance of your trip – is already in place for citizens of some countries, but in the spring of 2025 it will be expanded to include EU and EEA citizens such as French, German or Swiss nationals.

You can find full details of the scheme and how it works here.

The UK government information is largely geared towards tourists, and readers of The Local had questions – especially on how the changes affect people with residency in an EU or EEA country, on the position for EU spouses of a UK national and the changes for dual nationals.

Does this affect Brits who are resident in an EU/EEA country?

This system all depends on the passport you are travelling on, not where you live or whether you have a residency permit for another country.

So in short if you are travelling on your UK passport, you will be treated like every other Brit and won’t need an ETA. If you are a dual national, it depends on the passport you are travelling on (more on that below).

However Brits who have an EU partner or spouse (who don’t have a British passport) should be aware that the changes will apply to their spouse.

Does this limit stays in the UK for EU citizens who are married to a Brit?

ETA, like the EU’s new EES biometric passport checks and ETIAS visa waiver, does not change any of the existing rules around immigration or long-stay visas.

At present, citizens of a number of countries – including all EU/EEA countries and a number of non-EU countries such as the USA and Canada – benefit from visa-free travel to the UK for short visits. Those people can stay in the UK for up to 180 days per year without needing a visa, although they cannot work in the UK.

This category would cover tourists and people making short visits to family. Anyone who wants to stay longer than 180 days in a year, or who wants to work in the UK, would need a visa or to apply for residency through other routes such as the EU Settled Status scheme. This includes EU nationals who have a British spouse.

What changes under ETA is that the people making short stays will no longer benefit from visa-free travel – instead they must apply online for the ETA visa before travel.

Those who wish to stay longer or to work in the UK must apply for the relevant visa or residency permit type, exactly as they do now.

What about Irish passport holders?

The exception to these rules is for people travelling on an Irish passport. Because of the Common Travel Area between the UK and Ireland, those travelling on an Irish passport will not be required to get an ETA, and in fact nothing changes for them.

The exemption only applies if you are using your Irish passport to travel – if you have an Irish passport but are using another non-UK passport to travel you will be treated according to the passport you present. 

Likewise, UK nationals are also exempt from the requirement – but only if they are using their UK passport to travel.

Do children need an ETA?

Yes, everyone entering the UK will need an ETA, including children and babies. The travel authorisation costs £10 for everyone – unlike the EU’s ETIAS, there is no cost exemption for over 70s or under 18s.

Do I need an ETA as an airline transit passenger? That seems mad if I’m only passing through the airport?

Yes, an ETA is required for everyone, even if you’re only passing through a UK airport as part of a connecting flight. This has sparked fury from the UK’s ‘hub’ airports such as Heathrow, where bosses say the change could cost them up to 4 million passengers a year.

The government says: “Requiring transit passengers to obtain an ETA stops people who may use connecting flights to avoid gaining permission to travel to the UK.”

What about dual nationals?

The key thing for dual nationals to remember is that your passports are not ‘linked’ – so the immigration official that you present your passport to has no way of knowing that you also have the passport of another country.

Dual nationals are therefore treated according to the passport they present. So let’s say you have a UK passport and an Italian one – if you travel to the UK on the UK passport, you will not need an ETA. However if you travel on the Italian passport you will need an ETA.

It is perfectly legal to use two passports while making a trip, so that you can enter the UK showing your UK passport and then on your return to Italy show the Italian passport – this allows you to avoid the formalities for foreigners in both countries. If you are doing this, you will just need to take care when supplying Advance Passenger Information (API) to your travel provider that you are supplying the right information for the passport that you will be using for each leg of the journey.

When does this start?

The ETA requirement is already in place for citizens of certain countries and then will continue the roll-out in two subsequent stages.

Citizens of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates already need an ETA to enter the UK. From January 8th 2025 it will be extended to citizens of all non-EU/non-EEA countries and then from April 2nd it will be required for all EU/EEA citizens (with the exception of Ireland). Find the full list of countries here.

How do I get the ETA?

You apply and pay online before you travel – the UK government says that applications should be processed within three working days but that some could take longer. You cannot enter the UK until your application is processed.

Once issued, the ETA lasts for two years and allows multiple trips – although if your passport is renewed during that two-year period you will have to apply for a new ETA.

Find full details of how to apply here.

Why is the UK doing this?

It’s a security measure and is part of the UK’s plan to digitise its borders. The scheme is intended to reduce queues at the border, “helping to speed up legitimate journeys to the UK”, a government spokesman said.

It is very similar to the EU’s ETIAS visa waiver – due to come into effect in the spring of 2025 – and the US’s ESTA visa, which has been required for all visitors since 2009.

SHOW COMMENTS