London Gatwick Airport temporarily suspended flight operations due to issues with the airport’s Air Traffic Control (ATC) tower on Wednesday evening.
Problems started at about 5 pm local time. The closure lasted for almost two hours and caused at least two dozen inbound flights to divert to alternate airports.
Gatwick Airport said it was working with ANS, its provider for ATC services, to resolve the problem.
UPDATE Weds 19.00: All flights at Gatwick remain suspended due to Air Traffic Control systems issues. We apologise to any passengers impacted. If you are due to fly this evening, we advise you to check the status of your flight with your airline before travelling to the airport.
— Gatwick Airport LGW (@Gatwick_Airport) July 10, 2019
Travellers flying to or from Gatwick are urgently asked to check their flight status, as flights will be affected throughout the rest of the day and cancellations are possible.
The hub, mostly used by low-cost carriers, is the United Kindom’s second busiest, and Europe’s eighth busiest airport by passenger traffic. More than 46 million travellers passed through Gatwick Airport in 2018.
At the end of last year, during the Christmas holiday season, Gatwick was closed for 30 hours due to drones on the airfield.
Jakob Wert is an aviation journalist from Germany. He built up the website IFN.news and is the Editor-In-Chief of International Flight Network.
