"there may be some follow-on disruption"
Flights between London and the US have been disrupted after an unprecedented air traffic shutdown grounded aircraft across America, leaving thousands of passengers facing cancellations and delays.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) suspended all flights nationwide for around four hours on November 13 following communications problems at regional air traffic control centres.
The shutdown, which the FAA described as necessary “due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety”, resulted in around 10,000 flights to and from the US being cancelled, according to flight tracking service Flightradar24.
It was the longest US air traffic shutdown since the September 11 attacks.
US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced shortly after 1:30 am GMT on November 14 that American airspace had reopened, although he warned that disruption was likely to continue for several days.
The impact was already being felt at London’s airports on Friday night, with British Airways cancelling a flight from Heathrow to New York that had been scheduled to depart at 10:30 pm.
By 6:45 am on Saturday, Heathrow Airport’s website was showing 29 cancelled flights to and from the US, alongside delays affecting 19 departures.
At Gatwick Airport, three flights scheduled to arrive from Orlando, Florida, at 7:30 am were also cancelled.
The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has warned passengers to expect further disruption as airlines work to restore their schedules and accommodate those affected.
Tim Johnson, consumer director at the UK Civil Aviation Authority, said:
“While US flights have resumed, there may be some follow-on disruption as airlines work to re-book affected passengers and get all services back to normal.
“Anyone due to travel on flights between the UK and USA should check with their airline for the latest information before heading to the airport.
“We know that UK airlines are doing all they can to minimise inconvenience and to make sure their customers are properly looked after.”
British Airways has apologised to customers for possible delays and cancellations, advising passengers to travel to the airport as originally planned unless they are told otherwise.
A British Airways spokesperson said: “Our flights departing the United States may be delayed due to the ongoing air traffic control issue.
“Customers are advised to travel to the airport as planned so we can try to depart our aircraft as quickly as possible.
“This is entirely outside of our control and our teams are working hard to minimise any disruption to our customers.”
Virgin Atlantic also confirmed that a flight from London Heathrow to New York JFK scheduled to depart on Friday had been cancelled.
A Virgin Atlantic spokesperson said: “We’re aware of the ground stop order issued by the Federal Aviation Administration for all US airports.
“We’re closely monitoring the situation and assessing any impact to our flights. We advise any customers due to travel to check their flight status at virginatlantic.com.”
The disruption also affected transatlantic air traffic beyond the US, with European air traffic management organisation Eurocontrol announcing on Friday night that all US-bound flights departing from its member states had been suspended.
A statement on its website said: “To the attention of all Aircraft Operators: On request of FAA due to technical issues all traffic departing within IFPZ (Eurocontrol member states) between 2200 UTC on 13 NOV and 0500 UTC on 14 NOV, bound for US airports is suspended.
“For more information check ATCSCC Advisory.
“NMOC (Network Manager Operations Centre) is closely monitoring the situation and will provide updates accordingly.”
Eurocontrol has 42 member states, including the UK, Ireland, Germany and France, as well as two agreement states, Israel and Morocco.
Meanwhile, US Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the outage was caused by the introduction of new technology into an ageing air traffic control system, which overwhelmed the existing infrastructure.
He could not rule out the possibility of another outage but said “it doesn’t appear” that a cyber attack or rogue artificial intelligence had played a role in the incident.
Duffy said he expected flights across the US to be “back up and operational as we come into the heat of travel” next weekend, ahead of Thanksgiving, although he also suggested further disruption could occur.
He said: “We didn’t think we would have this kind of outage. We did.
“We were able to review what went wrong, and then reboot the system and go. But, you will have more of these.”
Passengers travelling between the UK and US have been advised to check directly with their airlines for the latest flight information before setting off for the airport, as services continue to recover from the unprecedented shutdown.
