Holidaymakers are set to face chaos at London Gatwick this week after the airport said that staff sickness in air traffic control had forced impose a cap on daily flights.
The airport said the decision to impose a “temporary” limit of 800 flights a day, covering both departures and arrivals, was made alongside air traffic control firm NATS and will last until Sunday.
Across both departures and arrivals, the change is expected to hit 29 flights on Wednesday, 40 on Thursday, 65 and Friday and 30 on Sunday, meaning a total of 164 flights will be hit.
The airport said the cap “will prevent last-minute cancellations and delays for passengers while NATS work through challenges driven by sickness and staffing constraints”.
It said 30 per cent of air traffic control tower staff are “currently unavailable for a variety of medical reasons including Covid”.
Stewart Wingate, chief executive of London Gatwick, said: “This has been a difficult decision but the action we have taken today means our airlines can fly reliable flight programmes, which gives passengers more certainty that they will not face last minute cancellations.
“We are working closely with NATS to build resilience in the control tower, and this decision means we can prevent as much disruptions as possible.
“London Gatwick would like to apologise to any passengers who have been impacted by these restrictions.”
There were major delays at the airport last week, also attributed to a shortage of air traffic control staff.
NATS said in a statement: “We have worked very closely with Gatwick airport throughout. Given the levels of sickness we have experienced over the last few weeks we believe it is the responsible thing to do to limit the number of flights this week in order to reduce the risk of daily disruption to passengers using the airport.
“We have trained as many ATCOs as possible this year in the Gatwick tower and have safely managed over 180,000 flights so far. However, with 30 per cent of tower staff unavailable for a variety of medical reasons including Covid, we cannot manage the number of flights that were originally planned for this week.
“Our operational resilience in the tower will improve as our staff return to work and we move out of the summer schedule, which is particularly busy at Gatwick.
“We continue to train additional air traffic controllers and expect another group to qualify to work in the tower over coming months, ready for next summer. Even an experienced air traffic controller takes at least nine months to qualify at Gatwick and very few are able to do so, as Gatwick is such a busy and complex air traffic environment.
“We will continue to recruit and train air traffic controllers at Gatwick a fast as possible to ensure we return to a fully resilient operation as soon as we can.”
Johan Lundgren, the chief executive of easyJet, said: “While it is regrettable that a temporary limit on capacity at Gatwick Airport is required, we believe that it is the right action by the airport so on the day cancellations and delays can be avoided.
“Gatwick Airport and Nats now need to work on a longer-term plan so the resilience of ATC (air traffic control) at Gatwick is improved and fit for purpose.
“Our call for a more wide-ranging review of Nats remains so the broader issues can be examined so it can deliver robust services to passengers now and in the future.”
A spokesman for the airline, which apologised for any inconvenience which was outside its control, said that affected passengers would be contacted as soon as possible and may be able to rebook or get a refund.
Rory Boland, Editor of Which? Travel, said: “It is completely unreasonable that passengers face yet more disruption to their travel plans. While customers should be booked on alternate flights as soon as possible and given overnight accommodation when required, Which? has repeatedly documented that this duty of care is ignored by many airlines.
“Consumers are paying record amounts of money for flights they can no longer trust will go ahead. To help end this cycle of miserable passenger experiences, the Prime Minister must play his part and prioritise legislation to give the CAA stronger enforcement powers in the King’s Speech later this year.”