As a result of the ripple effects of an air traffic control technical issue in the United Kingdom, airlines cancelled 20 flights into and out of Dublin Airport on Tuesday. Hundreds of irate travellers were forced to spend the night at the airport after the UK problem spread throughout the network.
Passengers Spend Night At Ireland’s Dublin Airport
Cancelled flight, next one isn’t until Wednesday and this is the queue at Dublin airport to get a hotel and transfer sorted… oh Ryan air pic.twitter.com/IJrWbUAFuC
— George (@gpavfc) August 28, 2023
As more departures and arrivals were impacted on Tuesday morning in addition to the 115 flights that were cancelled yesterday, the travel disruption that is disrupting planes could linger for days.
The Dublin Airport staff worked all night to assist and support any travellers who chose to spend the night at the terminals. They did this by offering blankets and beverages, and a number of food and drink outlets remained open all night.
The cities with impacted flights on Tuesday morning are Liverpool, Naples, Verona, Riga, Cagliari, Heathrow, and London City.
On Tuesday, scores of flights were cancelled as a result of the disruption, which started on Bank Holiday Monday. 1,200 were discarded yesterday as British nationals were left for hours at airports both domestically and abroad.
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A Technical Issue That Spread Across The Network
Been in the queue for over an hour maybe a third of the way through after RyanAir cancellation in Dublin airport. Hope I’m in the right queue for a hotel tonight pic.twitter.com/vi04Sg6CJa
— Chris G (@STAHPS_) August 28, 2023
The National Air Traffic Service of Britain (NATS) said that a technical issue had prevented it from automatically processing flight plans, necessitating the human entry of the data, which slowed down the procedure.
Although the problem was “identified and remedied,” the backlog of flights means that travellers will experience days of interruption during the last week of the summer break.
Juliet Kennedy, the operations director for NATS, apologised to the travellers but gave them advance notice that it would take some time for the flights to resume as usual. Mark Harper, the secretary for transportation, told LBC that experts had examined the issue but had ruled out a cyberattack.
In a week that has seen many miss their vacations completely or become stranded abroad, the stranded Brits will hope the inconvenience is quickly resolved.
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First Published: August 29, 2023 6:29 PM