For a fourth day, thousands of passengers flying to and from the UK have had their flights cancelled after a combination of bad weather and air-traffic control staff shortage led to hundreds of flights being axed. Around 3,500 passengers expecting to fly to or from London Gatwick on 20 flights on Monday morning have been grounded. Most are booked on easyJet , which cancelled its first flight of the day, to Ibiza, and six others including links to Naples and Nice.
Passengers were told the cause was “air-traffic control restrictions” and outside the airline’s control. The cancellations are in addition to 64 flights grounded by easyJet on Sunday due to short-notice staff shortage in Gatwick’s control tower . At least 100 flights were cancelled on Sunday evening at Gatwick, and others ran extremely late – such as the Wizz Air flight to Rome that was due to arrive soon after midnight but actually arrived in the Italian capital shortly before 6am, and an easyJet departure to Lyon that ran four hours behind schedule.
It was the third incident of mass cancellations due to staff shortage in the Gatwick control tower in less than a year. The tower is run by the air-navigation provider Nats , which said on Sunday night it was trying to “keep disruption to a minimum”. A spokesperson said:“Temporary air-traffic restrictions are currently in place at London Gatwick Airport in order to maintain safety.
These restrictions are due to short-notice staff absence at the air traff.