Flight chaos could cost airlines £100 million
Airlines could take a £100m hit from the air traffic control snafu over the holiday weekend.
As travel disruption continues, International Air Transport Association boss Willie Walsh estimates it could cost carriers up to £100m.
“Too early to estimate fully but I would imagine at an industry level we’ll be getting close to £100m of additional costs that airlines have encountered,” Walsh told the BBC Radio’s Today programme.
NATS chief executive Martin Rolfe said ‘unreliable’ flight data sent the system into meltdown, causing widespread flight cancellations.
Rolfe said a preliminary investigation found the NATS system ‘couldn’t interpret’ the flight data.
There have been more than 1,000 flight cancellations from UK airports data firm Cirium says.
Flight cancellations continued at airports this morning with 30 grounded so far.
Nearly 800 flights were cancelled on Bank Holiday Monday and a further 182 flights were scrapped yesterday.
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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