CHOAS descended across UK airports yesterday as the
start of another summer season was hit by delays and cancellations.
It comes as public service union GMB announced its
1,000 members who work for Aviance could strike in the third week of June if
pay talks between the two sides fail.
Aviance staff work in baggage handling and check-in at
17 airports across the UK. Transport and General Workers’ Union members who
work for Aviance are also in the first stages of a ballot on whether to strike.
Meanwhile, thousands of passengers were left on the
ground as airlines were forced to cancel scores of flights because of the air
traffic control system failure at West Drayton, near Heathrow.
Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted were all
hit by the failure, while regional airports, including Glasgow, Birmingham,
Bristol and Manchester also struggled to get aircraft in the air.
British Airways scrapped 27 flights, EasyJet 40 and
BMI 16, while Ryanair cancelled around 10 services.
Hundreds more flights were delayed by up to five hours
as airlines tried to clear the backlog.
Agents throughout the country were inundated with
calls from worried and angry clients affected.
The crisis came after National Air Traffic Systems’
Flight Data Processing System failed at around 6am for one hour after overnight
testing of an upgrade.
Departing aircraft were grounded as air traffic
controllers guided carriers already in the air to safety.
NATS insisted the safety of flights was not
compromised, but apologised “unreservedly” to air travellers whose flights had
been disrupted. However, angry airlines called for a full investigation and
said they may pursue NATS for compensation.
An EasyJet spokeswoman said: “This has cost us a lot
of money through no fault of our own, so we should be entitled to some
compensation.” She added it proved new European Commission rules on
compensation for delayed passengers was unfair on airlines. A BA spokesman said
it would be seeking urgent talks with NATS, of which it is a shareholder, to
thrash out what went wrong.
Prospect, the union
representing air traffic controllers, said more funding needed to be poured
into NATS. Negotiator David Luxton said: “This should be just a blip as testing
has been going well, but this proves airlines, the Government and NATS need to
continue to work together.”