Air traffic control down over UK currently

[Margoliciously]

Anyone else heard this? A national shutdown of air traffic control as system goes down.

I should add lots of people stuck in Palma unable to get home, they've no idea for how long. Hope you all get back/ onwards very soon.

@StillWantingADog

Pretty much agree..as you say the ACMI (third party) operators are probably at or close to capacity and I'm not sure how quickly they could be brought into play anyway..

Part of the reason will be that for example LHR and LGW are so congested there are no more slots available, but there will be at other airports..

Yep, and there's the en-route slots issue as well.

Not really surprised, I think Palma was already struggling with delayed passengers after the weekend's storms, yesterday just added to their problems.

I can believe it. Palma
was in a mess before the atc issues, due for the averse weather.

Palma might actually be the one place where @sleepyscientist 's out of the box thinking about using the military (somebody's) might make actually sense (if airport capacity allows).

We had a cancelled BA flight last month, and were told they no longer have a customer service desk at airports as everything is now done remotely. The advice was to go onto the Manage My Booking section on their website, so hopefully you’ll be able to do that when the website is up and running again? I presume you can cancel or rebook through that.

Yes @Fluffypuppy1 thats what I would have done, except by the time it’s all up and running again, I may as well just wait here. It’s now only 2 1/2 hours until my flight whereas if we had known this morning it would have been worth making alternative plans.
Ah well, my kids love planes so they’re watching them out of the massive window and hopefully we’ll be on our way in a couple of hours.
When I hear about some of these awful delay stories it makes me feel like I can’t complain too much.

Finally made it back to Stanstead last night from Palma with a 6hour delay sitting on the runway

Grateful to have made it home as so many others were (and still are) stranded.

Hope everyone makes it to where they need to be! It's the unknown that is so stressful

Sitting in the airport and flight is currently showing as on time so hoping to make it home only 24 h late 🤞🏻

Getting anxious that tomorrows rebooked flight might be cancelled so I have prepared a backup plan.

Train from Verona to home town (North West) would begin at 5pm tomorrow and take 24 hours with 4 changes. Was surprisingly easy to research actually but would cost E2500 in total. However I do hope plan B is not needed.

Thanks @CloudyMcCloudy - amazingly, we are here in Paros! Our flight from lgw was only delayed by 50 mins. Lgw itself was remarkably calm and orderly. Our timings at Mykonos were already tight so It was an anxious drive to the port but incredibly we made the last ferry and we’re here! I feel very very lucky and very conscious that’s probably been on the back of all the others who have been cut loose. Really hoping you all get where you need to be sooner than you expect.

Hope that everyone gets where they need to be today

Sorry to everyone who has been stuck and had their flights delayed/cancelled, hope you managed to get your destination/back home as quickly as possible.

We are due to fly to Palma next Monday with TUI from Newcastle at 6:05. Should we leave normal time for the airport or will they text/email me if there is a long delay well in advance of us leaving? We will already have to wake nearly 2 year old at 3 o clock so don't want to be stranded for hours and hours with a very tired toddler if we can just wait at home and let him sleep longer. There was a flight early this morning at 01:45 to Palma which has been delayed to 17:00 this evening from Newcastle. Do you think the delays will still be this bad come Monday?

Currently sat at the bus stop on way to the airport. Fingers crossed our rebooked flights go ahead🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼. I really don't fancy plan B on a train as it will probably end up aggravating my sciatica although DS2 has said he would prefer it 🙈

Good luck. Our turn to try and fly this evening

i actually think the train trip sounds ace. But I’d rather plan it properly rather than have to put it together in a rush. I
remember a colleague being stuck in tenerife after the big ash cloud incident and having a marvellous story about the various ferries and trains it took to get home. Hopefully your flight will be fine 🤞

No. But there are always some delays.

@StillWantingADog good luck to you also. We are now at the gate waiting to board so it's looking good still.

Arrived at the airport to find a flight an hour before us going direct to Manchester. DH asked if there were any places available and if so could we switch, they said that half an hour before they had 5 spaces (we need 4) biut all now gone 😭. So still Belfast with a long wait for the connection to Manchester. At least we should be home tonight.

That’s great. We flew a bit later in the day and only a short delay. Felt very lucky!

We’re overnighting in Schopel airport. Booked the lounge because the website said open 24 hrs, but it’s closed overnight.