ALERT: Delays at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport Due to Air Traffic Control Computers (February 1, 2017)

February 1, 2017

Alert – Delays at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport Due to Air Traffic Control Computers

Technical issues with the air traffic control system at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport are causing delays. Some flights are being rerouted to airports in Rotterdam and Munich, Germany.

Reuters is reporting:

Passengers at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport faced long waits Wednesday due to a serious computer problem at air traffic control, causing scores of flights to be diverted, canceled or delayed.“We are not sure yet what the cause is or how long it will take to fix it,” said spokesman Paul Weber. A reboot of computer systems at one of Europe’s largest flight hubs failed to resolve the issue.

Delay times had mounted to more than 60 minutes, three hours after the problem was first discovered. Flights were being redirected to Germany’s Munich airport and Rotterdam, he said.

According to the UK’s Independent:

Schiphol airport in Amsterdam, which normally handles 160,000 passengers a day, has been hit by what Eurocontrol described as a “critical system problem.”The fault appears to be with radar correlation software, which compares and assesses information from primary and secondary radar.

Eurocontrol said: “Successive system re-starts have failed to rectify the problem and the system remains unstable.” It warned pilots to “anticipate possible diversions if the situation continues”.

KLM, the Dutch airline based at Schiphol, has been experiencing long delays for much of the day, and is making dozens of cancellations. The afternoon service from Amsterdam to Birmingham and back was grounded, as were the evening departures to Heathrow and Manchester.

Flights from Bristol, Cardiff, Durham Tees Valley, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Heathrow, Humberside, Leeds/Bradford, and London City airport were running at least three hours late.

The “hub and spoke” model used by KLM is especially susceptible to disruption. Many British passengers are connecting to and from worldwide services, and while long-haul operations were less badly affected, it is likely that many people will miss their connections and be stranded in Amsterdam.

The airport said: “Unfortunately passengers will face delays due to a system failure at the Air Traffic Control. At this moment, it is uncertain how long the outage will last. The Air Traffic Control is working on a solution.”