Italian air traffic control glitch grounds and delays flights

Summarised from 2 outlets · Updated 16 Oct, 13:29 · Archive

Italian airports have cancelled and delayed flights after a data transmission fault reduced air traffic capacity by 50 per cent.

A fault in Italy's air traffic control system has caused flight cancellations and delays across the country. The disruption affects major airports including Rome Fiumicino, Milan Malpensa, Bergamo, Bologna, Venice and Naples. ENAV, Italy's air navigation service provider, identified anomalies in the data transmission network overnight.

Contingency systems kept operations running normally until 6am, but as air traffic increased, regulators imposed flow-management measures that cut capacity by 50 per cent. ENAV said it was using alternative data transmission systems to maintain as many departures as possible, including intercontinental flights. By mid-morning, Rome Fiumicino had cancelled at least 12 flights to destinations including Munich, Malaga, Malta, Valencia, Amsterdam and Lyon. Other departures faced delays of 15 to 60 minutes.

ENAV said technicians had traced the anomalies to the data network and were working to establish the cause and restore full capacity. The agency ruled out a cyberattack, saying flight operations remained safe at all times. ENAV stated it is deploying all available resources to minimise disruption and restore full operations as soon as possible.

How it is being reported

• Italy: Nationwide air traffic control issues disrupt flights at Rome airportFlight delays and cancellations disrupted Rome’s Fiumicino Airport on Friday 16 October after a fault in the data-transmission network supporting Italy’s nationwide air traffic control system.Euronews · 16 Oct, 13:16
• Chaos across Italian airports as flights grounded and delayed over glitchThe disruption is affecting airports across Italy, including Rome Fiumicino and Milan Malpensa, as air traffic management capacity has been reduced by 50 per centThe Mirror · 16 Oct, 11:37

In this story: ENAV · Rome Fiumicino · Milan Malpensa · Italy · easyJet

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