"Today 29,500 flights were expected in the European network. Approximately half of those could have some delay as a result of the system outage," the Eurocontrol operator said in a statement.
The Eurocontrol further added that the normal operations were expected to be resumed by late Tuesday evening.
There has been a failure of the Enhanced Tactical Flow Management System. Contingency procedures are being put in place which will have the effect of reducing the capacity of the European network by approximately 10%. Further information will be provided as soon as possible.
— EUROCONTROL (@eurocontrol) April 3, 2018
The medium daily traffic in April in Eurocontrol's 41 member states is almost 30,000 flights, which probably means that 3,000 flights were suspended and up to half a million passengers could have lost their flights.
The issue with the ETFMS has been identified and work is progressing to recover the system, which is expected to occur late this evening. Aircraft operators are requested to refile any flight plans for flights not yet operated and that were originally filed before 10.26UTC
— EUROCONTROL (@eurocontrol) April 3, 2018
Yet the situation has continued without severe consequences yet.
As from 1520 UTC, we have reopened the access to its flow management system while remaining in Procedural Contingency mode. This is the next step in re-establishing normal Network Manager operations, which is expected later tonight.
— EUROCONTROL (@eurocontrol) April 3, 2018
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Earlier, Air France had to cancel 24 percent of its flights due to a strike of the company's personnel, who demand a six-percent pay increase.
