Summary
- Ryanair is pushing back against Gatwick Airport’s request to cut back flights attributable to air traffic controller shortages brought on by COVID-19 cases and medical leave.
- The airline claims that ongoing disruptions call for motion and is appealing to the CAA and NATS to resolve the staff shortages.
- Gatwick Airport has implemented a day by day flight cap of 800 movements to attenuate disruptions, and passengers are advised to ascertain with airlines.
The Irish carrier is pushing back against officials at London Gatwick Airport who’ve asked airlines to cut back flights for the week. The airport and National Air Traffic Services (NATS) issued the declaration Monday as they revealed that a 3rd of the airport’s highly specialized air traffic controllers are on medical leave, with a lot of COVID-19 cases.
Why is Ryanair pushing back?
The carrier revealed today that it might not adhere to the airport’s request “attributable to NATS’s self-inflicted ongoing staff shortages.” In an announcement seen by Easy Flying, Ryanair highlighted significant disruptions by the air traffic controller provider this summer, including the August twenty eighth collapse that caused the cancellation of over 2,000 flights and delayed one other 900,000 passengers.
Ryanair, which pays NATS almost €100 million annually for ATC service, claims that the incident and 6 subsequent disruptions at Gatwick Airport over the past 4 weeks disruptions call for motion. The carrier is appealing to the country’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to intervene and protect passengers immediately and NATS CEO Martin Rolfe to take motion to resolve these ATC staff shortages. A spokesperson for the airport noted that the refusal to cooperate would have little effect:
“RyanAir have a really small operation so unlikely they’d be impacted.”
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Ryanair currently only flies to 4 destinations from Gatwick: Cork, Dublin, Shannon, and Alicante in Spain.
What caused the shortages?
The airport confirmed this week that it decided to cut back flights after close conversations with each NATS and airlines. The parties agreed that given the degrees of staff sickness experienced over the previous couple of weeks, the responsible thing to do is limit the variety of flights this week to cut back the chance of day by day disruption to passengers using the airport. The air traffic control organization confirmed that 30% of tower staff are unavailable for various medical reasons, including COVID-19.
The day by day cap has been implemented to forestall last-minute cancellations and delays for passengers while NATS works through challenges driven by sickness and staffing constraints. The limit of 800 day by day flights began on Monday and can remain in place until Sunday, October 1st. Before the limit’s announcement, only 4 days were expected to exceed the cap. The schedule was set as follows:
- Tuesday – 800 movements
- Weds – 829 movements
- Thursday – 840 movements
- Friday – 865 movements
- Saturday – 800 movements
- Sunday – 830 movements
To date, there have only been two cancellations at Gatwick today (Tuesday) for any reason. Wednesday has sixteen cancellations set to occur tomorrow to date, primarily by easyJet. Thursday has none. Stewart Wingate, CEO of London Gatwick, apologized on behalf of the airport for the inconvenience to travelers:
“This has been a difficult decision however the motion now we have taken today means our airlines can fly reliable flight programmes, which supplies passengers more certainty that they are going to not face last minute cancellations.
“We’re working closely with NATS to construct resilience within the control tower, and this decision means we are able to prevent as much disruptions as possible.
“London Gatwick would really like to apologise to any passengers who’ve been impacted by these restrictions.”
Photo: Tea and Biscuit Photos | Shutterstock.
Passengers are advised to ascertain the status of their flights directly with their airlines.
What are the following steps?
Adding air traffic controllers isn’t a sure bet. Each controller should be trained specifically for Gatwick airport operations. The method takes significant time, with a minimum of nine months of coaching for skilled air traffic controllers and as much as two years for others before they may be certified to regulate aircraft on the world’s busiest single-runway airport safely.
“Our operational resilience within the tower will improve as our staff return to work and we move out of the summer schedule, which is especially busy at Gatwick.”
“We proceed to coach additional air traffic controllers and expect one other group to qualify to work within the tower over coming months, ready for next summer. Even an experienced air traffic controller takes at the least 9 months to qualify at Gatwick and only a few are capable of achieve this, as Gatwick is such a busy and sophisticated air traffic environment.
“We are going to proceed to recruit and train air traffic controllers at Gatwick a quick as possible to make sure we return to a totally resilient operation as soon as we are able to.”
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Fellow low-cost-carrier easyJet confirmed it was working with the airport to eliminate flights but called the choice regrettable and urged NATS to deal with its “persistent” staffing issues.